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ANNUAL REPORT
OF
THE BOARD OF REGENTS
OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
SHOWING THE
OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND CONDITION OF THE
INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR 1865.
WASHING TON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE,
fr Ge.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, May 9, 1866.
Resolved, That five thousand additional copies of the report of the Board of Regents of the
Smithsonian Institution for the year ending the 30th of June, 1865, be printed—two thousand
for the use of the Smithsonian Institution and three thousand for the use of the Senate.
Provided, That the aggregate number of pages contained in said report shall not exceed four
hundred and fifty pages, without wood-cuts or plates, except those furnished by the
Institution.
Attest:
J. W. FORNEY, Secretary.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, June 8, 1866.
On motion of Mr. Laflin, from the Committee on Printing:
Resolved, That five thousand extra copies of the last report of the Smithsonian Institute be
printed—two thousand for the Institution and three thousand for the use of the members of
this house.
Attest:
EDWARD McPHERSON, Clerk.
LETTER
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND CON-
DITION OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR 1866.
May 7, 1866.—Laid on the table and ordered to be printed,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
5 Washington, May 7, 1866.
Sir: In behalf of the Board of Regents, I have the honor to submit to the ,
Congress of the United States, the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution
for the year 1865.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOSEPH HENRY,
Secretary Smithsonian Institution.
Hon. ScHuyLerR CoLrax,
Speaker of the Huuse of Representatives.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS
OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
SHOWING
THE OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION
UP TO JANUARY, 1866, AND THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE
BOARD UP TO MAY, 1866.
To the Senate and House of Representatives :
In obedience to the act of Congress of August 10, 1846, establishing the
Smithsonian Institution, the undersigned, in behalf of the Regents, submit to
Congress, as a report of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the In-
- stitution, the following documents:
1. The Annual Report of the Secretary, giving an account of the operations
of the Institution during the year 1865.
2. Report of the Executive Committee, giving a general statement of the
Smithsonian fund, and also an account of the expenditures for the year 1865.
3. Report of the Building Committee.
4. Proceedings of the Board of Regents up to May, 1866.
5. Appendix.
Respectfully submitted:
8. P. CHASE, Chancellor.
- JOSEPH HENRY, Secretary.
OFFICERS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
MAY, 1866.
ANDREW JOHNSON, ez officio Presiding Officer of the Institution,
SALMON P. CHASE, Chancellor of the Institution.
JOSEPH HENRY, Secretary of the Institution.
SPENCER F. BAIRD, Assistant Secretary.
W. W. SEATON, Treasurer.
WILLIAM J. RHEES, Chief Clerk:
ALD. BACHE, |”
RICHARD WALLACH, Executive Committee.
RICHARD DELAFIELD,
REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION.
L. F. S. FOSTER, Vice-President of the United States.
S. P. CHASE, Chief Justice of the United States.
R. WALLACH, Mayor of the City of Washington.
L. TRUMBULL, member of the Senate of the United States.
GARRETT DAVIS, member of the Senate of the United States
W. P. FESSENDEN, member of the Senate of the United States.
J. A. GARFIELD, member of the House of Representatives.
J. W. PATTERSON, member of the House of Representatives.
J. F. FARNSWORTH, member of the House of Representatives.
W. B. ASTOR, citizen of New York.
T. D. WOOLSEY, citizen of Connecticut.
L. AGASSIZ, citizen of Massachusetts.
“A. D. BACHE, citizen of Washington.
RICHARD DELAFIELD, citizen of Washington.
MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE INSTITUTION.
ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States.
L. F. S. FOSTER, Vice-President of the United States.
W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
H. McCULLOCH, Secretary of the Treasury.
E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
G. WELLES, Secretary of the Navy.
WM. DENNISON, Postmaster General.
J. SPEED, Attorney General.
S. P. CHASE, Chief Justice of the United States.
T. C. THEAKER, Commissioner of Patents.
RICHARD WALLACH, Mayor of the City of Washington.
HONORARY MEMBER.
JAS. HARLAN, Secretary of the Interior, (ex officio.)
PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION
OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
[PRESENTED IN THE FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, AND
ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF REGENTS, DECEMBER 13, 1847.]
LN TR: O:D/UjG2) 1-0; Ni.
General considerations which should serve as a guide in adopting a Plan
of Organization.
1. Witt oF Suiruson. The property is bequeathed to the United
States of America, ‘‘to found at Washington, under the name of the
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, an establishment for the increase and diffu-
sion of knowledge among men.’’
2.The bequest is for the benefit of mankind. The government
of the United States is merely a trustee to carry out the design of
the testator.
3. The Institution is: not a national establishment, ‘as is frequently
supposed, but the establishment of an individual, and is to bear and
perpetuate his name.
4. The objects of the Institution are, 1st, to increase, and 2d, to
ditfuse knowledge among men.
5. These two. objects ‘should not be eonfounded with one another.
The first is to enlarge the existing stock of knowledge by the addition
of new truths; and the second, to disseminate knowledge, thus in-
creased, among men. .
6. The will makes no restriction in favor of any particular kind of
knowledge ; hence all branches are entitled to a share of attention.
7. Knowledge can be increased by different methods of facilitating
and promoting the discovery of new truths ; and can be most exten-
sively diffused among men by means of the press,
8. To effect the greatest amount of good, the organization should
be such as to enable the Institution to produce results, in the way of
increasing and diffusing knowledge, which cannot be produced either
at all or so efficiently by the existing institutions in our country.
9. The organization should also be such as can be adopted provi-
sionally ; can be easily reduced to practice, receive modifications, or
be abandoned, in whole or in part, without a sacrifice of the funds.
~
8 PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION,
10. In order to compensate, in some measure, for the loss of time
occasioned by the delay of eight years in establishing the Institution,
a considerable portion of the interest which has accrued should be
added to the principal.
11. In proportion to the wide field of knowledge to be cultivated,
the funds are small.. Economy should, therefore, be consulted in the
construction of the building ; and not only the first cost of the edifice
should be considered, but also the continual expense of keeping it in
repair, and of the support of the establishment necessarily connected
with it. There should also be but few individuals permanently sup-
ported by the Institution.
12. The plan and dimensions of the building should be determined
by the plan of the organization, and not the converse.
13. It should be recollected that mankind in general are to be
benefited by the bequest, and that, therefore, all unnecessary expen-
diture on local objects would be a perversion of the trust.
14. Besides the foregoing considerations, deduced immediately from
the will of Smithson, regard must be had to certain requirements of
the act of Congress establishing the Institution. These are, a library,
a museum, and a gallery of art, with a building on a liberal scale to
contain them.
SECTION I.
Plan of Organization of the Institution in accordance with the foregoing
deductions from the will of Smithson.
To INCREASE KNOWLEDGE. It is proposed—
1. To stimulate men of talent to make original researches, by offer-
ing suitable rewards for memoirs containing new truths; and,
2. To appropriate annually a portion ef the income for particular
researches, under the direction of suitable persons.
TO DIFFUSE KNOWLEDGE. It is proposed—
1. To publish a series of periodical reports on the progress of the
different branches of knowledge ; and,
2. To publish occasionally separate treatises on subjects of general
interest.
DETAILS OF THE PLAN TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE.
I. By stimulating researches.
1. Facilities afforded for the production of original memoirs on all
branches of knowledge.
2. The memoirs thus obtained to be published in a series of vol-
umes, in a quarto form, and entitled Smithsonian Contributions to
Knowledge.
3. No memoir on subjects of physical science to be accepted for
PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION. 9
publication which does not furnish a positive addition to human
knowledge, resting on original research ; and all unverified specula-
tions to be rejected. »
4. Each memoir presented to the Institution to be submitted for
examination to a commission of persons of reputation for learning in
the branch to which the memoir pertains; and to be accepted for
publication only in case the report of this commission is favorable.
5. The commission to be chosen by the officers of the Institution,
and the name of the author, as far as practicable, concealed, unless
a favorable decision be made.
6. The volumes of the memoirs to be exchanged for the Trans-
actions of literary and scientific societies, and copies to be given to
all the colleges and principal libraries, in this country. One part of
the remaining copies may be offered for sale ; and the other carefully
preserved, to form complete sets of the work, to supply the demand
from new institutions.
7. Antbstract, or popular account, of the contents of these memoirs
to be given to the public through the annual report of the Regents to
Congress.
II. By appropriating a part of the income, annually, to special objects
of research, under the direction of suitable persons.
1. The objects and the amount appropriated, to be recommended
by counsellors of the Institution.
2. Appropriations in different years to different objects; so that
in course of time each branch of knowledge may receive a share.
3. The results obtained from these appropriations to be published,
with the memoirs before mentioned, in the volumes of the Smith-
sonian Contributions to Knowledge.
4. Examples of objects for which appropriations may be made.
(1.) System of extended meteorological observations for solving
the problem of American storms.
(2.) Explorations in descriptive natural history, and geological,
magnetical, and topographical surveys, to collect materials for the
formation of a Physical Atlas of the United States.
(3.) Solution of experimental problems, such as a new determina-
tion of the weight of the earth, of the moeety of electricity, and of
light ; chemical analyses of soils and plants ; collection and publica-
tion of scientific facts, accumulated in the offices of government.
(4.) Institution of statistical inquiries with reference to physical,
moral, and political subjects.
(5.) Historical researches, and accurate surveys of places celebrated
in Amertcan history.
(6.) Ethnological researches, particularly with reference to the
different races of men in North America; also, explorations and ac-
curate surveys of the mounds and other remains of the ancient people
of our country. ~~
10 PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION.
DETAILS OF THE PLAN FOR DIFFUSING KNOWLEDGE.
I. By the publication of a series of reports, giving an account of the new
discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year im
all branches of knowledge not strictly pi ‘ofessional.
1. These reports will diffuse a kind of knowledge generally in-
teresting, but which, at present, is inaccessible to the public. Some
of the reports may be published annually, others at longer intervals,
as the income ot the Institution or the changes in the branches of
knowledge may indicate.
2. The reports are to be prepared by collaborators eminent in the
different branches of knowledge.
3. Each collaborator to be furnished with the journals and publi-
cations, domestic and foreign, necessary to the compilation of his
report ; to be paid a certain sum for his labors, and to be named on
the title-page of the report.
4. The reports to be published in separate parts, so that persons
interested in a particular branch can procure the parts relating to it
without purchasing the whole.
5. These reports may be presented to Congress, for partial distri-
bution, tlfe remaining copies to be given to literary and scientific in-
stitutions, and sold to individuals for a moderate price.
The following are some of the subjects which may be embraced in
the reports :*
I. PHYSICAL CLASS.
1. Physics, including astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry,
and meteorology.
2. Natural history, including botany, zoology, geology, &c.
3. Agriculture.
4, Application of science to arts.
H. MORAL AND POLITICAL CLASS.
5. Ethnology, including particular history, comparative philology,
antiquities, &e.
6. Statistics and political economy.
7. Mental and moral philosophy.
8. A survey of the political events of the world ; penal reform, &c.
III. LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.
9. Modern literature.
10. The fine arts, and their application to the useful arts.
11. Bibliography.
12. Obituary notices of distinguished individuals.
Il. By the publication of separate treatises on subjects of general interest.
1. These treatises may occasionally consist of valuable memoirs
translated from foreign languages, or of articles prepared under the
*This part of the plan has been but partially carried out.
»
PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION. tik
direction of the Institution, or procured by offering premiums for the
best exposition of a given subject.
2. The treatises should, in all cases, be submitted to a commission
of competent judges, previous to their publication.
3. As examples of these treatises, expositions may be obtained of
the present state of the several branches of knowledge mentioned in
the table of reports.
SECTION II.
Plan of organization, in accordance with the terms of the resolutions of
the Board of Regents providing for the two modes of increasing and
diffusing knowledge.
1. The act of Congress establishing the Institution contemplated
the formation of a library and a museum; and the Board of Regents,
including these objects in the plan of organization, resolved to divide
the income* into two equal parts.
2. One part to be appropriated to increase and diffuse knowledge
by means of publications and researches, agreeably to the scheme
before given. The other part to be appropriated to the formation
of a library and a collection of objects of nature and of art.
3. These two plans are not incompatible with one another.
4. To carry out the plan before described, a library will be re-
quired, consisting, Ist, of a complete collection of the transactions
and proceedings of all the learned societies in the world; 2d, of the
more important current periodical publications, and other works
necessary in preparing the periodical reports.
5. The Institution should make special collections, particularly of
objects to illustrate and verify its own publications.
3. Also, a collection of instruments of research in all branches of
experimental science.
7. With reference to the collection of books, other than those
mentioned above, catalogues of all the different libraries in the
United States should be procured, in order that the valuable books
first purchased may be such as are not to be found in the United
States.
8. Also, catalogues of memoirs, and of books and other materials,
should7be collected for rendering the Institution a centre of biblio-
graphical knowledge, whence the student may be directed to any
work which he may require.
9. It is believed that the collections in natural history will increase
by donation as rapidly as the income of the Institution can make pro-
vision for their reception, and, therefore, it will seldom be necessary
to purchase articles of this kind. *
10. Attempts should be made to procure for the gallery of art
casts of the most celebrated articles of ancient and modern sculpture.
WmitedtStatesnis=2 see ee one ee = eee oie eee acid ame $515, 169 00:
Interest on the same to July 1, 1846, (devoted to the erection of the building). 242,129 00
Annual income from the bequest Sete eee ore ee eee ere ater pte ate tna te 30,910 14°
*
12 PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION.
11. The arts may be encouraged by providing a room, free of
expense, for the exhibition of the objects of the Art-Union and other
similar societies.
12. A small appropriation should annually be made for models of
antiquities, such as those of the remains of ancient temples, &c.
13. For the present, or until the building is fully completed, be-
sides the Secretary, no permanent assistant will be required, except
one, to act.as librarian.
14. The Secretary, by the law of Congress, is alone responsible to
the Regents. He shall take charge of the building and property,
keep a record of proceedings, discharge the duties ot librarian and
keeper of the museum, and may, with the consent of the Regents,
employ assistants.
15. The Secretary and his assistants, during the session of Congress,
will be required to illustrate new discoveries in science, and to exhibit
new objects of art. Distinguished individuals should also be invited
to give lectures on subjects of general interest.
This programme, which was at first adopted provisionally, has be-
come the settled policy of the Institution. The only material change
is that expressed by the following resolutions, adopted January 15,
1855; viz:
Resolved, That the Tth resolution passed by the Board of Regents,
on the 26th of January, 1847, requiring an equal division of the
income between the active operations and the museum and library,
when the buildings are completed,.be, and it is hereby, repealed.
Resolved, That hereafter the annual appropriations shall be appor-
tioned specifically among the different objects and operations of the
Institution, in such manner as may, in the judgment of the Regents,
be necessary and‘proper for each, according to its intrinsic import-
ance and a compliance in good faith with the law.
REPORT-OF THE SECRETARY.
To the Board of Regents :
GENTLEMEN : The principal object of the annual report of the Sec-
retary is to present to the Board of Regents, at the beginning of their
session, such an account of the events and operations of the previous
year as may serve as the basis of their deliberation, as well as
furnish the materials for a connected history of the Institution. Be-
sides this, however, it is desirable that each report should contain
such brief expositions as may tend to keep the ever-changing public
informed as to the true character of the establishment and of the re-
sults it is intended to produce. The importance of these repetitions
will be evident when it is recollected that these reports follow each
other after a considerable interval of time, are in great part distribu-
ted to different persons, and that now, after an interval of little less
than twenty years since the first one was published, but few indi-
viduals can obtain access to an entire set. Indeed, it is often a mat-
ter of surprise to meet so many intelligent persons, even in the city
of Washington, who are entirely ignorant of the terms of the bequest
on which the Institution is founded, and of the plan which has been
adopted to execute the trust thereby devolved upon the government.
It can, therefore, scarcely be too often repeated that the Institution
is not, as our foreign correspondents often suppose, an association of
learned men similar to the scientific societies of Europe and America;
that it is not a university for the education of youth, nor an agency
for the diffusion of useful knowledge among the people of the United
States, but primarily a foundation for enlarging the boundaries of
science by stimulating and assisting the researches of original inquir-
ers, wherever found, and for gratuitously diffusing the results of such
researches wherever they may conduce to the intellectual or material
interests of men.
The general plan adopted for the realization of these benevolent
purposes, and steadily pursued from the beginning, has been repeat-
edly explained in the successive reports, and might, indeed, be gath-
ered from almost any one of them by an attentive consideration of
the account given of the operations of each year. In the last report
a brief sketch was presented of all that had been accomplished in the
14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
way of advancing science through the agency of the Smithsonian be-
quest, and in the present report it is purposed to continue this histor-
ical account to the close of the year just passed, accompanied with
such other particulars as may be needed for better illustration, and
such suggestions as may seem necessary in regard to the policy of the
Institution.
The most important event of 1865 was the destruction of a part of
the building and its contents by the fire of January 24. This event
must continue to form an epoch in the history of the Institution; and
though it cannot but be considered a most serious disaster,it may yet
lead to changes of importance in the correction of tendencies which
might ultimately have absorbed the annual income and neutralized
the more liberal policy which has thus far been pursued. In view,
therefore, of the character of the event, as well as the continuity of
the history, it is deemed expedient, before proceeding with an ac-
count of the operations of the year, to repeat briefly the facts con-
nected with the origin and results of the fire.
It may be well, however, for the better information of those not
acquainted with the Smithsonian building, to premise in regard to it
the following particulars: It consists of a main edifice two hundred
feet long and fifty wide, with two large wings and two connecting
ranges, having in allanextreme length, in an east and west direction,
of four hundred and fifty feet. In front and rear of the middle
portion.are projections, terminated by high towers, two on the north
and one on the south side; moreover, on each corner of the middle
building is a smaller tower, and also one on each of the two wings.
The whole of the first story of the main building, in a single room,
is devoted to the museum; the upper story, in three apartments,
was assigned to the lecture room, the gallery of art, and the cabinet
of apparatus. The west wing is entirely appropriated to the library;
the east wing to the residence of the Secretary and a storeroom for
publications and specimens of natural history. The east connecting
range contains the laboratcry and office rooms; the west range is an
extension of the museum. In the large towers were the Regents’
room, the offices of the Secretary, storerooms, and workshop.
Though the original plan was much admired for its architectural
effect, it was soon found that, in relation to the means at the disposal
of the building committee, it was too expensive to admit in its con-
struction of the exclusive use of fire-proof materials; hence, while the
exterior was to be constructed of cut freestone, it was concluded to
finish the interior in wood and stucco. Fortunately this plan, which
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15
was carried outin regard to the wings, the connecting ranges,and
the towers, was abandoned before the completion of the main build-
ing. After the exterior of this, including the roof, had been finished,
and the framing of the interior was in place, the latter suddenly
wave way and was precipitated into the cellar—a mass of broken
timber. The attention of the Regents having been called by this
accident to the insecurity of the wood-work, they directed that
the further progress of the building should be stopped until means
could be accumulated for finishing the remainder of the edifice in a
more stable manner and with fire-proof materials. In accordance with
this direction, after an interval of several years, the construction
was recommenced under the direction of Captain (now General) B. 8S.
Alexander, of the Engineer corps, and the whole of the main building,
except the inside of the towers and the framing of the roof, which
had previously been completed, was finished in a substantial manner
in iron and brick work. The architect advised the removal of the
roof, but as this would have swelled the cost of the building still fur-
ther beyond the estimate and the means at command, and as the cov-
ering was of slate,the framing under it was thought to bein no danger
from fire. This, however, was destined to be the part on which the
first attack of the element was tobe made. Through a mistake in
some workmen, the pipe of a stove which had been temporarily used
in one of the upper rooms was introduced through the wall into a
furring space resembling a flue, but which discharged the heated air
from the combustion into the loft immediately under the roof, in-
stead of into the air, through the true chimney. The rafters were
set on fire, and before the burning was discovered the entire wood
work under the covering was in flames. The progress of the fire
was so rapid, that but few of the contents of the upper rooms could
be removed before the roof fell in. The flames soon extended to
the large towers, and as these acted as high chimneys, they greatly
increased the intensity of the combustion. The conflagration was
only stayed by the incombustible materials of the main building. Had
the original plan of constructing the interior of the edifice in wood-
and plaster been fully carried out, the whole structure would have
been destroyed, and the valuable library and rich collections of speci-
mens of natural history entirely lost.
The aperture which deceived the workmen was probably made by
those who originally plastered the building. It occupied a middle
point between two windows, and from its position, would naturally
lead to the inference that it was designed to conduct the products of
16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
combustion directly into the chimney, from which it was only separated
by the thickness of a single brick. For what reason it had not been
placed in the middle between the two windows is unknown. It is
remembered that some ten years previous to the fire this opening
was, during several weeks, used for the insertion of a stove pipe,
without suspicion of accident at the time; but in the interval the
wood had undergone a process of drying which rendered it more
combustible.
Constantly impressed with the fact that the interior of the two
wings and the connecting ranges were constructed of combustible
material, I have always telt great anxiety on account of the lability
to conflagration of these parts of the building. ‘The rest of the edi-
fice, with the exception of the interior of the towers, was supposed
to be secure from injury of this nature. A night watch was con-
stantly kept, barrels and buckets filled with water were placed at
suitable points, and strict rules were adopted prohibiting the carry-
ing of exposed lights, as well as the practice of smoking,in any part
of the edifice. That these precautions were unavailing has been
seen; thefire having been communicated ut a point where danger
was least suspected, and in a manner which rendered its occurrence
sooner or later almost inevitable.
The weather at the time was extremely cold, and before the engines
could be brought into operation the whole of the roof was in flames.
Commencing at the west end of the centre building, the’ flames
were driveg by the wind, which blew from that direction, east-
wardly, and fortunately away from the library, in the west wing.
The destruction of the roof of the main building involved that of
the contents of the rooms immediately beneath-it, and also those of
the three principal towers adjacent. In the former were the Indian -
portrait gallery, the lecture room, and the apparatus room. The first
of these contained the large collection of paintings by Mr. Stanley
and a series of Indian portraits belonging to the government. The
lecture room was constructed on acoustic and optical principles, and
not only answered perfectly the ends for which it was immediately
intended, but had served also as a model for lecture rooms in various
parts of the country. The apparatus room contained the principal
part of the articles presented by the late Dr. Robert Hare, and a
large number of instruments of recent construction, intended both for
illustration and original research. ;
The losses in the south tower were, first, the contents of the Regents’
room, including the personal effects of Smithson; second, those of a
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Ly
+
large room above it, in which were stored the private library of Rev.
Dr. Johns, of Virginia, and the public library of Beaufort, S. C.,de-
posited there at the request of Hon. Mr. Stanton, for preservation
until the end of the war; and third, in the attic, a large collection of
public documents and complete sets of the Smithsonian Reports, in-
tended for distribution. The effects of Smithson had but little in-
trinsic value, and were chiefly prized as mementoes of the founder of
the Institution. They consisted of a number of articles of chemical
and physical apparatus, such as were used by him in his perambula-
tory excursions, two small cabinets of minute specimens of miner-
als, a silver-plated dinner service, and a trunk filled with manu-
scripts. The portrait of Smithson while a student at Oxford, a me-
_ dallion likeness of him in bronze, his library, consisting of 150 vol-
umes, and a small painting were saved. The manuscripts consisted
principally of notes on scraps of paper, intended apparently for alpha-
betical arrangement in a common-place book, after the manner of a
philosophical dictionary.
The losses in the north towers were the contents of the offices of
the Secretary, including the records and copies of the correspondence
of the Institution, the wood-cuts to illustrate the publications, the
steel plates of an expensive memoir, several boxes of stereotype
plates, a large number of manuscripts of the Secretary on scientific
subjects, four memoirs accepted for publication, about a hundred
volumes of valuable books from the library, used for constant and
immediate reference; a large number of copies of the Smithsonian
Reports and duplicate documents; the contents of the workshop, con-
sisting of a lathe, forge, a full set of tools, and an assortment of
hardware and materials for the construction and repair of apparatus;
and of the upper room of the highest tower, including the clock-work
of an anemometer for recording the direction and force of the wind.
Not only was this instrument itself lost, but all the records which had
been obtained by the use of it for the last seven years. Fortunately,
nearly all the other meteorological records, which were in a lower
room, were saved.
The Indian portraits,as far as they were the likenesses of particu-
lar individuals, in most cases can never be reproduced, but we are
gratified to learn that the extensive collection of Mr. Catlin, of a sim-
ilar character, has been purchased in Europe by Mr. Harrison, of
Philadelphia, and will be rendered accessible to the student of eth-
nology. Besides this, there are in existence, particularly in Canada,
other portraits, sufficient in number and variety fully to illustrate the
28
18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
characteristics of the race. At the same time the loss has fallen very
heavily upon Mr. Stanley, the painter and owner of this collection.
It was the result of the labor of many years among the Indians; it
constituted the pride, as it has been the crowning effort, of his life,
and he ardently desired that it might be transmitted to posterity as
a monument of his enterprise and industry. The hope is entertained
that the government will see fit to give him an order to paint a pic-
ture for the Capitol, in which the principal figures of this collection
and the characteristics of the Indian race may be portrayed.
The apparatus presented by Dr. Hare was interesting on account
of its association with the history of the advance of science in this
country. The collection contained most of the articles invented by
the donor, and which are described in the scientific journals of the
first half of the present century. Among the chemical implements
were those used by that distinguished chemist, in procuring for the
first time, without the aid of galvanism, calcium, the metallic basis
oflime. A number of the articles of apparatus presented by Dr. Hare,
though injured by the fire, may be repaired, and I have taken meas-
ures for their restoration.
Among the articles of historic interest which were lost is the lens
used by Priestley for the evolution of oxygen from the oxide of mer-
cury, and by means of which the first distinct recognition of this ele-
mentary substance was effected.. It had been presented to the Insti-
tution by the nephew of the celebrated philosopher, as was also the
apparatus employed by Priestley in his experiments on bodies in con-
densed atmospheres. The latter was but slightly injured, and can
readily be repaired. The other articles of apparatus may be re-
placed at an expense of about ten thousand dollars.
The most irreparable loss was that of the records, consisting of
the official, scientific, and miscellaneous correspondence, embracing ~
35,000 pages of copied letters which had been sent, at least 30,000
of which were the composition of the Secretary, and 50,000 pages of
letters received by the Institution; the receipts for publications and
specimens; reports on various subjects which have been referred to
the Institution; the records of experiments instituted by the Secre-
tary for the government; four manuscripts of original investigations,
which had been adopted by the Institution for publication; a large
number of papers and scientific notes of the Secretary ; a series of
diaries, memorandum and account books. Fortunately, however, a
detailed history of the general operations of the Institution is pre-
‘served in the printed reports; and a large amount of correspondence
connected with natural history and meteorology was saved,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19
Since the occurrence of the fire all the operations have been car-
ried on in the lower story of the east wing of the building, (the upper
part still continuing to be the residence of the Secretary,) and in the
several rooms of the adjoining east range. Connected with an office
in the latter, the lower story of the tower attached to the southeast
corner of the main building has been converted into a fire-proof
vault, in which all the valuable papers and records are constantly
kept, except for the usually short time they are required for con-
sultation. To insure the wakefulness and fidelity of the watchmen,
we have introduced the use of an instrument called a ‘detector,’ which
records the number and the times of his visits to the several parts
of the building. For this instrument, which has rendered good ser-
vice during the past year, we are indebted to the liberality of its
inventor, Mr. J. E. Bauerk, of Boston, who, in consideration of the
loss which the Institution has sustained by fire, kindly presented it
free of charge.
A circumstantial account is given by the building committee of
what has been done toward the reconstruction of the edifice. From
this it will be seen that the plan adopted contemplates not merely
the repair of the damage by the fire, but the restoration of the
several parts in fire-proof materials, and with such alterations in the
division of the interior space as will better adapt it to the uses of
the Institution.
The plans have been prepared and the work superintended by Mr.
Adolph Cluss, an architect who was warmly recommended by the
mayor of Washington as having been successful in designing and
erecting the public school-houses of the city as well as a number of
churches and other buildings. These plans have been critically ex-
amined and, in some cases, modified by the chairman of the building
committee, General Delafield, who, by his knowledge and experience
in the line of engineering, has rendered the Institution valuable
service.
No appropriation has yet been made by Congress to aid in the
restoration of the building. Considering, however, the large amount
of government property intrusted to the care of the Institution, it
can scarcely be doubted that in a normal condition of the national
_ finances an appropriation for such purpose would have been readily
granted.
In consideration of the extraordinary outlay required for the recon-
struction of the building, an effort has been made to reduce as much
as possible the miscellaneous expenses, and to engage in no enter-
20 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
prise that is not absolutely necessary to the continuance of the general
operations. So many articles, however, of furniture and stores of
hardware and stationery were to be replaced that we have not been
able to reduce the expenditures to as low a point as we could wish;
yet it will be seen that they fall somewhat below those of the pre-
ceding year.
A reference to the report of the Executive Committee will show
that the following is the present condition of the fund:
First. The whole amount of money originally derived from the
bequest of Smithson is still in the treasury of the United States,
bearing interest at six per cent., paid semi-annually, and yielding
$30,910 yearly.
Second. Seventy-five thousand dollars of an extra fund are in
bonds of the State of Indiana, at five per cent. interest, also paid
semi-annually, yielding $3,750.
Third. Fifty-three thousand five hundred dollars of the same fund
are in bonds of the State of Virginia, twelve thousand in those of
Tennessee, and five hundred in those of Georgia, fpom which nothing
has been derived since the commencement of the war.
The southern State stocks have increased during the year in mar-
ketable value, though no interest has been derived from them.
The interest on the original fund for the past year has been paid
by the Secretary of the Treasury in coin, under the advice of the
Solicitor of the department, who, having investigated the subject, de-
cided that in accordance with the usages of the government the
Institution was entitled thus to be paid.
At the end of last year there was a balance in the hands of the
treasurer of unexpended interest of $29.484 08, which, with the in-
come on the original bequest and premium on coin, made a disposable
fund of $84,956 37; of this sum $39,121 77 have been expended on
the building, and $32,115 97 for the maintenance of the establish-
ment and for carrying on all the operations of the Institution, leaving
a balance of $13,718 63 to be further applied to the building.
In view of the great expenditure of the government on account of
the war, the Institution did not at first claim, as it justly might have
done, the payment of the annual income of the bequest in specie; but
after the great loss sustained by the fire, the necessity could not be ~
avoided of calling the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury to
this subject. The claim, after consideration, was allowed, so far as
related to the current income, but the question relative to the differ-
ence between the payment of the interest which had previously
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ae
accrued in currency or in coin has not been settled by the depart-
ment. That the Institution is entitled to the benefit resulting from
this difference was the unanimous opinion of the Board of Regents at
their last session, and among them of Chief Justice Chase. This
learned jurist has since stated, that when Secretary of the Treasury
he had in several cases ordered the currency received by parties who
after investigation were found justly entitled to be paid in coin, to be
again returned into the treasury, and had directed payment to be
made to them in specie nominally of the same amount.
It has been mentioned in the two preceding reports, that a part of
the original bequest had been left in England as the principal of an
annuity payable to the mother of Smithson’s nephew. The annui-
tant having died, a power of attorney signed by Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States, was sent to Fladgate, Clarke & Finch,
solicitors, in England, authorizing them to collect the money and pay
it to the order of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The
proceeds from this, deducting the expenses of collection, were £5, 262
Qs. 3d., which were temporarily deposited with George Peabody &
Co., who not only transacted the business without charge, but allowed
four per cent. interest-on the money while it remained in their hands.
The total amount of this residuary legacy received by the Institution,
including the interest, £153 19s. 4d., was $26,210 63 in gold, which
being sold at the current premium, (about 207,) yielded $54,165 38 in
United States currency. This sum was invested in government bonds,
bearing interest at T 3-10 per cent., and deposited for safe-keeping
with General Spinner, the Treasurer of the United States.
It was at first supposed that the interest on this fund could be
immediately applied to the uses of the Institution, but upon a critical
examination of the enactments of Congress in regard to the bequest,
it was found by the Solicitor of the Treasury that the act of Congress
of 1846 appropriated only that portion of the money which was
then in the treasury, and made no provision for the disposition of the
residuary legacy. The Secretary of the Institution was therefore
called upon by Mr. Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury, to deposit this
fund to his order in the treasury of the United States until Congress
should authorize the appropriation of it to the maintenance or use of
the Institution.
The cost of the restoration of the building in fire-proof materials
without changing the external appearance has, as formerly stated,
been far greater than was anticipated. Whether the portion of the
work yet to be executed will much exceed in cost that which has
ap REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
already been completed, will depend upon the price of materials and
oflabor. The Institution may in time be able to finish this work with-
out encroaching on its present capital, provided the Secretary of the
Treasury shall recognize the inadequacy of the payments of interest
which for three years were made in the depreciated currency of the
time. If this allowance be not made, and no assistance be received
from Congress, then, in order to secure the building and its contents
from injury by the weather, the Institution will be obliged to sacrifice
a portion of its extra fund, and to the extent of this forever diminish
its power to ‘‘increase and diffuse knowledge among men.”’
I have always been opposed to asking appropriations from Congress
for the maintenance of the Institution, believing that the government
is called upon to do nothing further in its behalf than carefully to guard
the original bequest, and see that it is faithfully applied in an efficient
manner to the purposes intended by the donor. But the government,
after having voluntarily accepted the trust, is bound in good faith to
carry out the intentions of the testator, and to make up for any en-
croachments upon the funds which may have resulted from improvi-
dent or defective legislation. From abundant experience of at least
the last fifteen years, it has been shown that the cost and maintenance
of a building of the character which has been erected, so far from
being necessary to the most efficient realization of the intentions of
the founder, have been a constant source of extraneous expense, and
have absorbed a large amount of money which ought to have been
added to the active capital; and the question may now be asked
with propriety, whether, since this building was erected by its
own agents, in conformity with a law of Congress, an appropriation
should not be made to restore it in fire-proof materials, and to devote
it in whole or in part to purposes of the government. A single wing
of the edifice is sufficient to carry on all the essential operations of
the Institution, and the whole remaining part of the building might
be applied to the national collections, which have been greatly en-
riched at the expense of the Institution, to the accommodation of the
Army Medical Museum, or to the uses of the Agricultural Department.
Publications. —During the past year the general operations of the
Institution have been continued with unabated energy, although,
on account of the increased cost of paper and printing, the number
of copies of publications distributed has not been so great as in some
previous years. The papers, however, which have been printed are
stereotyped, and all our domestic institutions will be supplied as soon
as a reduction of prices or an increase of the income of the Institu-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23
tion shall warrant the expenditure for this purpose. The following
is a list of the works in quarto published by the Smithsonian Insti-
tution in 1865:
Discussion of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observations made
at Girard College Observatory, Philadelphia, in 1840, 1841, 1842,
1843, 1844, and 1845. Fourth section comprising Parts X, XI, and
XII. Dip and total force. By A. D. Bache, LL. D. Pp. 44. (Pub-
lished January, 1865.) .
Paleontology of the Upper Missouri: A report upon collections
made principally by the expeditions under command of Lieutenant
G. K. Warren, U.S. topographical engineers, in 1855 and 1856.
Invertebrates. By F. B. Meek and F. V. Hayden, M. D. Part I.
Pp. 156 and five plates. (Published April, 1865.)
Cretaceous Reptiles of the United States. By Joseph Leidy, M.D.
Pp. 142 and twenty plates. (Published May, 1865.)
These memoirs, which have all been described in previous reports,
Combined with section third of Professor Bache’s discussion and Dr.
Draper’s article on the construction of a silvered glass telescope,
published in 1864, formed volume XIV of the ‘‘Contributions to
Knowledge,’’ (490 pp., 25 plates,) which was distributed in part
during the past year.
Of other quarto works in press in 1865, the following are nearly
ready for publication, and will constitute part of volume XV of the
‘* Contributions:’’
Astronomical, magnetic, tidal, and meteorological observations
within the arctic circle, by Isaac I. Hayes, M. D., reduced and dis-
cussed by C. A. Schott, of the U. 8. Coast Survey. 250 pp., with
two charts and a number of diagrams.
Investigation of the Orbit of Neptune, with general tables of its
motion. By Simon Newcomb, of the U. S. Naval Observatory.
Epsiic.
The memoirs actually completed and issued in the year therefore
embraced 342 pp. and 25 plates, which, added to the 366 pp. stereo-
typed but not distributed, in the same period, makes an aggregate
of 708 pp. and 25 plates in quarto as the record of the year.
The following works in octavo were also published or printed in
1865:
Instructions relative to Ethnology and Philology of America.
Appendix A—physical characters of the Indian races ; Appendix B—
numerical systems. By George Gibbs. Pp. 18. (Published May,
1865.)
24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Review of American Birds in the collection of the Smithsonian
Institution. By S. F. Baird. Pp. 143-320 or 172 pp. (Published
May, 1865.)
Researches upon the Hydrobiine and allied forms, chiefly made
upon materials in the museum of*the Smithsonian Institution. By
Dr. W. Stimpson. Pp. 64. (Published August, 1865.)
In addition to the above, continuations of the following works
were printed in 1865:
Catalogue of transactions of societies and scientific journals in the
library of the Smithsonian Institution. 200 pp.
Continuation of Parts II and III, by Mr. Binney, of the Synopsis
of the Land and Fresh Water Shells of the United States. About
60 pp.
These make a total of 514 pages, and, including the Annual Report
of 18€@4, (450 pages,) an aggregate of 964 octavo pages ; and of all
classes of publications, 1,672 pages.
Smithsonian Contributions.—The first paper which has been re-
ceived for publication in the quarto series, and which has not yet
been described, is that on the planet Neptune, by Professor New-
comb, of the National Observatory.
It will be recollected by those who are familiar with the histery of
the operations of the Institution, that shortly after the discovery of the
planet Neptune, the first ephemeris of, or, in other words, a table for
indicating, its position in the heavens at any time during the year was
prepared and published at the expense of the Smithsonian fund. This
ephemeris was computed from an orbit based on a remarkable dis-
covery of Professor Sears ©. Walker, then of the Washington Obser-
vatory. Beginning with observations of the movement of the planet
during a period of four months, Mr. Walker traced its path among
the stars through its whole revolution of 166 years, and was thus
enabled to carry its position backward until it fell among a cluster of
stars, each of which had been accurately mapped by the celebrated
Lalande, near the close of the last century. From a critical scrutiny
of these stars, Mr. Walker was led to conclude that one of this clus-
ter observed by Lalande on the night of the 10th May, 1795, was the
planet Neptune. Availing himself of this discovery, Mr. Walker
had now a series of observations, embracing not merely a few
months of the movement of the planet, but its entire motion during
a period of fifty years. From these data he was enabled to deduce
a perfect elliptical orbit, or one which the body would describe were
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25
there no other planets in the system, and from this to calculate an
ephemeris.
The motion of Neptune was further investigated by another of our
countrymen, Professor Peirce, of Cambridge. He calculated the
action of all the other planets on Neptune, and obtained results
which enabled Mr. Walker to correct his elliptical orbit, and to com-
pare the calculated places of the planet with its actual position in the
heavens. This led to a further correction of the orbit, and to a more
perfect table of calculated places. The Ephemeris was published
annually for several years, until the establishment of the American
Nautical Almanac, when, in accordance with the general policy of
the Institution, it was transferred to that work.
During the last nineteen years, which have elapsed since the investi-
gation of Professors Peirce and Walker relative to the orbit of this
planet, a series of accurate observations have been made upon its mo-
tion at the principal observatories of the world, and these have now
been discussed by Professor 8S. Newcomb, of the Washington Observa-
tory, a young mathematician in whose progress and advancement this.
establishment has taken great interest.
The objects of Mr. Newcomb’s investigations, as stated in the in-
troduction of his memoir, are as follows:
1. To determine the elements of the orbit of Neptune with as
much exactness as a series of observations extending through an are
of forty degrees will admit of.
2. To inquire whether the mass of Uranus can be deduced from
the motions of Neptune.
3. To inquire whether these motions indicate the existence of an
extra neptunian planet, or throw any light on the question of the
existence of such a planet.
4. To construct general tables and formule, by which the place
of Neptune may be found at any time, and more particularly between
the years 1,600 and 2,000.
The work is divided into five chapters.
The first is introductory, giving a brief review of the previous la-
bors of astronomers in perfecting the theory of Neptune. The only
approximately correct theory which had been published is shown to
be that of Professor Sears C. Walker and Professor Benjamin Peirce,
whose labors were given to the world in the second and third vol-
umes of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, and in the first
volume of the Proceedings of the American Academy. The elements
of this theory were, however, far from correct, owing to the insufti-
26 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
ciency of the observations which had been made when the theory was
constructed. On account of the extremely slow motion of Neptune,
the errors of the observations would be multiplied several hundred
times in the final elements of the orbit.
The second chapter contains the computation of the perturbations
of Neptune arising from the attractions of the other planets. This
was the most difficult and laborious part of the work, the difficulty
being greatly increased by the circumstance that the attraction of
Uranus causes the orbit to pass through a regular change of form in
a cycle of about 4,300 years.
The third chapter gives a discussion of the meridian observations
of Neptune, made at the observatories of Greenwich, Paris, Wash-
ington, Cambridge, Hamburg, and Albany.
In the fourth chapter, the positions of the planet given by the ob-
servations are compared with a provisional theory, for the purpose of
correcting the elements, after which, supposing Neptune to be attracted
only by the known planets, its motions, as observed during the nine-
teen years since its discovery, are compared with the results of the
theory of gravitation, and the greatest difference between the theoreti-
cal and observed longitudes is less than a quarter of a second in space,
a minuteness so inconsiderable that, if multiplied by 300 times, it would
still be too small to be perceptible by the naked eye, and the discre-
pancy is as likely to be due to the errors of the observations them-
selves as to that of the assumption of no exterior planet.
It is therefore concluded that there is no evidence of any unknown
cause influencing the motions of Neptune, and consequently no evi-
dence of the existence of an extra neptunian planet. At the same
time, this is only negative evidence; for supposing the extra planet
to exist, centuries might be required for its attraction to exert any
appreciable influence upon the motions of Neptune. For a similar
reason there are no reliable data for correcting the mass of Uranus.
The fifth chapter is devoted to the tables, which are founded on
the theory finally concluded upon, and will probably not be subject
to errors of more than a very few seconds during the remainder of
the present century.
The history of the planet Neptune in relation to the perfection of its
orbit exhibit a series of facts alike creditable to the science of this
country and the policy of the Smithsonian Institution.
The next paper for the ‘‘ Contributions’ is an exposition of the re-
sults of the discussion of the observations made during the expedition
under the direction of Dr. I. I. Hayes in the arctic regions, by Chas.
A. Schott, of the United States, Coast Survey.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 20
The expedition, during which these observations were made, was
organized and principally equipped through the enterprise of Dr.
Hayes, assisted by contributions of a number of liberal gentlemen
interested in the advance of physical geography. The principal ob-
ject of the enterprise was the extension of the explorations of Dr.
EB. K. Kane north of Baffin’s Bay, and to make such observations as
would add to our knowledge of the physical condition of the arctic
regions. The expedition was mainly furnished with instruments by
the Coast Survey and the Smithsonian Institution, and after its re-
turn the records of its observations in their rough state, or as they
were made, were presented to the Institution for reduction and dis-
cussion.
It is scarcely necessary to mention that scientific truths are not
generally immediately deduced from the simple observation of phenom-
ena, but that these require in most cases corrections to free them
from the effects of extraneous and other causes. Thus in observing
the place of the moon or a planet, the position as given directly by
the instrument must be corrected for refraction, for parallax and
for instrumental errors. So with the observations of the baro-
meter, a correction must be applied for the relative expansion of the
mercury and of the brass case in which the glass tube is contained,
and also for capillarity, and in many cases for the elevation of the
instrument above the level of the sea.
After the observations have been submitted to the process of
correction, to which the name of reduction has been applied, they are
then in a condition for scientific analysis, or for what is technically
called discussion. It seldom happens that any phenomenon is the
result of a single approximate cause. In almost all cases the effect
observed is the result of a series of concurring causes, and it is the
object of the scientific inquirer, if possible, to ascertain the separate
effect of each. For example, the height of the tide at a given place
and time is due to the conjoint action of the sun and moon modified
by the form and direction of the coast, to concurring or adverse tidal
waves, and also to the direction of the wind. In a successful discus:
sion each of these effects should be separately exhibited, and the
amount of the several influences of each critically ascertained. With-
out such reduction and discussion the crude observations exhibit a
mass of figures without apparent connexion, and give no indication
‘of the relation of phenomena. Unfortunately the labor attending
these processes is so great, and in many. cases the skill required so
unusual, that individual enterprise and ordinary attainment are in-
28 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
sufticient to accomplish the end, and on this account immense masses of
physical observations are of little value to science. Even those
made by Parry, Ross, and the other explorers in the arctic regions
have not yet been subjected to the analytical processes by which all
the interesting truths relative to the physical geography of the globe
are to be deduced. It is in this line that the Smithsonian Institution
has especially rendered good service in the way of advancing science.
Of this fact the memoir in question, with those which the Institution
‘has published relative to the observations made by the expedition
—
under the direction of Dr. Kane, and that under Sir F. L. McClin-
tock, and the discussion of the observations made at Girard College
by Professor A. D. Bache, are obvious illustrations.
For investigations of this kind the Institution has been fortunate in
obtaining the services of a computer so expert and sagacious as Mr.
Schott, since few persons are to be found who combine the varied
qualifications necessary to so difficult an undertaking.
The results of the observations made under the direction of Dr.
Hayes are presented in four parts: the first relates tothe astronomi-
cal and geodetic; the second, to the magnetic; the third, to the tidal;
and the fourth, to the meteorological observations.
The first part contains all the geographical positions determined
by the explorers, including a series of observations to ascertain the
latitude and longitude of Port Foulke, the winter quarters of the ex-
pedition in 186061; also a general survey of Kennedy channel, and
a minute survey of Smith’s straits. The memoir presents a table of
eighteen geographical positions, all determined with astronomical ac-
curacy, by means of which, and the help of angles and solar bearings,
the outlines of a large map were traced. It is highly gratifying to
find, says Mr. Schott, that a remarkable agreement exists with the
prominent points observed during Kane’s expedition, and, indeed,
that the exploration of Dr. Hayes is truly an extension and verifica-
tion of the labors of his predecessor in the same regioa.
Nor is this all; it is proper to state that a new sound was dis-
covered, opening to the westward near Cape Sabine, and also that
two points noticed by Kane and described as headlands were found
to be parts of two islands at the entrance of a bay; also the shore-
line of Whale sound was fully developed, as well as the whole of the
western coast of Kennedy channel. All these results, with the posi-
tions of the glaciers, are exhibited on a general chart of the regions
explored, and on a special chart of Smith’s straits. ,
The agreement of the results of the observations under Dr. Hayes
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29
and Dr. Kane is due to the fact that in both expeditions the greater
portion of the observations were made by Mr. August Sonntag, well
known to sciepee by his previous labors in astronomy and physics.
By his early death the expedition sustained a great loss, since through
his aid still greater additions would have been made to our knowl-
edge of the regions explored.
Included in the first part of the reductions is also an account of
the pendulum observations, intended to furnish information as to the
relative intensity of the force of gravity, and, consequently, of the
figure of the earth. The pendulum used in these observations is a
simple bar of brass, five feet seven three-fourth inches in length and
one inch and four-tenths in breadth, and seven-tenths in thickness,
weighing nearly twenty-two pounds. It is furnished with two steel
knife-edges, placed at 14.2 inches from either end, so that it may
be vibrated first with one end downward, and then with the other,
affording in each position a series of independent observations. The
direction of the face of the pendulum could also be reversed, by means
of which the results of their regularities of the knife-edge could at
least in part be eliminated.
For comparison of the observations which had been made in the
arctic regions, a series was instituted, previous to the sailing of the
expedition, with the same pendulum, at the Harvard Observatory, in
Cambridge, by the late director, George P. Bond. The result ob-
tained by the comparison indicates a smaller value for the polar de-
pression of the earth than that deduced from all previous pendulum
observations in the northern region. If combined with these, it will
bring the resulting figure of the earth nearer to that previously de-
duced from the measurement of arcs of the meridian in various parts
of the world.
The compression, as deduced by Mr. Schott from all the observa-
tions of the expedition under Dr. Hayes, is 37a part of the polar ra-
dius. The excess of the number of vibrations in a day at Port Foulke,
over the number made by the same pendulum in the same time at
the Harvard Observatory, was 1293. Tie observations were cor-
rected for the height above the level of the sea, for the expansion of
the metal on account of variation of temperature, and other devia-
tions from anormal condition. It is highly desirable that the same
pendulum be vibrated at several points on the eastern coast of the
United States, as nearly as possible, under the same meridian as Port
Foulke, in order to obtain a series of independent determinations of
the curvature of the earth; and for this purpose the instrument has
30 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
been lent to the Coast Survey, to be vibrated at New York, Wash-
ington, and Key West. The observations at New York will afford
the means of connecting the results of a similar kind in Europe and
other parts of the Old World, through the series of observations made
by General Sabine in that city in 1822-23, at the old site of Colum-
bia College.
The observations of part second, which relate to magnetism, are
of two kinds, namely, differential and absolute; the first made at Port
Foulke, between November and March, 1860-’61, on fifteen days,
during each hour of the twenty-four, being intended to ascertain the
diurnal variation of the magneticneedle. The results of these ob-
servations are presented in connexion with those of Dr. Kane, in
the form of a curve in which the agreement is strikingly exhibited.
From both series it appears that the north end of the needle at-
tains its greatest westerly deviation at one p. m.; its greatest easterly
deflection, between two and three o’clock in the morning; its normal
position, at seven in the morning, and at the same hour in the evening.
From these additions to our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism we
have been enabled to state the fact that when simultaneous observa-
tions are made at different places, the motions of the needle are found
to be governed by the local time at each place. From this it has been
inferred that the cause of the daily motion of the needle is connected
with the diurnal motion of the sun. The one o’clock greatest western
excursion is common to all localities in the northern magnetic hemi-
sphere, and is the most constant feature of the daily motion of the
needle.
The declination was determined at fourteen localities on the coast
of Greenland, between latitudes 72 and 80. These have been dis-
cussed in combination with the observations of Dr. Kane, and the
result is given on a magnetic chart of the vicinity of Smith’s strait.
The horizontal component of the magnetic intensity was determined
at seven stations, and these, combined with those by Dr. Kane, are
also represented on the same chart. The inclination or dip was ob-
served at six localities, and were similarly combined with Kane’s
determination, and likewise exhibited on the same chart.
It isa remarkable fact that but three auroras of sufficient brilliancy
to attract the attention of the observers were seen at Port Foulke
during the winter of 1860—61, though many were noticed during the
same period in lower latitudes; and this fact is the more interesting
since the position above mentioned is very nearly the centre of the
auroral belt as marked out by Professor Loomis, and exhibited in the
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31
appendix of the report for this year. Although the aurora is now
known to be an electrical phenomenon, it is certain that its region of
greatest activity is not the magnetic pole of the earth, but isin a
vone of several degrees in breadth, including the geographical poles
eccentrically; nevertheless, it is also clear that it is influenced in its
motions by the magnetism of the globe.
The third part, which relates to tidal observations, consists of
two series: the first were made during November and December, 1860;
the second in June and July, 1861. In the first series the height of
the tide was noted every half hour; in the second series it was ob-
served at every ten minutes about the time of high and low water.
The apparatus employed consisted of a rope to which a stone was
attached at the lower end resting on the bottom and passing over a
pulley attached to a movable weight at the other. The pulley was
supported by a tripod standing over a hole in the ice at a short dis-
tance from the vessel, and the changes of the height of tide were
indicated by the vertical motion of the smaller weight. Corrections
were applied for the irregular stretching of the rope and also for the
errors of the watch. From the records thus corrected, Mr. Schott
has determined the height of the average sea level for each day, and
has compared this with the moon’s declination parallax, or distance
from the earth, the atmospheric pressure, and the direction and force
of the wind. It is found that a variation of between one and two
inches in the height of the water is due to the changes in the moon’s
declination from zero to its maximum value; also that a rise of one inch
in the mercury of the barometrical column is accompanied with a fall of
nearly four inches in the level of the sea. The effect of the wind,
though small, is apparent. With a northeast wind there was a de-
pression, and with a southwest an elevation, of the level; one proba-
bly blowing the water into and the other out of the strait.
The general character of the tide at Port Foulke is similar to that
at Van Rensselaer harbor, exhibiting two ebbs and two flows each
lunar day, with considerable diurnal variation, producing at Port
Foulke at certain times the character of a single daily tide—the two
waves as it were running into each other. The establishment, or, in
other words, the average lagging behind of the high water, after the
passage of the moon across the meridian of the place, is here half an
hour earlier than at Van Rensselaer harbor, which is distant 55 miles
in a northeast direction. This indicates a motion in accordance with
the general direction of the tidal wave, which in this region is not
due to the direct attraction of the moon, but is derived from the
great tidal wave of the Atlantic ocean,
32 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
The investigation of the half-monthly inequality, or of the effect of
the action of the sun in modifying the effect of the moon in time as
well as in height of tide, gave the following results: The range of
the inequality in time is one hour and twenty-six minutes. The mean
establishment of high water is found to be eleven hours thirteen min-
utes and eight-tenths, and that of low water seventeen hours nineteen
and a half minutes. The range of the variation in the height of the
water, due to the action of the sun and moon, is two feet and a half. The
absolute average variation in the height of water at Port Foulke is
7.1 feet, while Dr. Kane found at Van Rensselaer harbor 7.9 feet as
the variation at that place. The extreme fluctuation observed in the
water level was 13.8 feet, The retardation or the difference between
the theoretic and observed time of high water is comparatively small.
The effect of the greater or less distance of the moon or parallax
on the half-monthly inequality shows that diminution of distance
produces a decrease in the time of the lagging of the water, and that
the range of the tide is increased by three-tenths of a foot for an
increase of one minute of parallax. The action of the sun must ev-
idently be relatively less, with an increase of the declination of the
moon, and the amount of this is found from the discussion of the
observations to be in height of the value of only a fraction of a foot,
and in time but a few minutes.
The moon, as it is well known, produces ae high tides, at nearly
the same moment, on opposite sides of the earth, and these must vary
in altitude and extent from day to day, with the change of position
of the moon in the heavens. The difference of these two tides in time
and height is called the diurnal inequality. Mr. Schott has made
of this phenomenon a special graphical study, and has found that the
diurnal variation in height is greater for high water than for low
water--that is, two successive high waters differ from each other
more than two successive low waters. The maximum variation in
height is found at Port Foulke to be 3.8 feet, and only 2.4 in low
water, while this variation entirely disappears about two days after
the moon passes the equator. This is for the high water ; but for
low water the disappearance does not take place until after a lapse
of nearly ten days, and this fact is connected with a remarkable one
relative to the magnitude of the variation. On the one hand, the less
interval of time between two tides is accompanied in high water
with a greater difference of height, while in low water a greater
interval of time is connected with a smaller difference in the level
of the two tides. ‘The diurnal inequality is due to two waves, a
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. oo
diurnal and a semi-diurnal, which are exhibited by a diagram and
fully analyzed.
Next, the form of the tide was investigated, and found to occupy
a longer time in rising than in falling, or, in other words, its posterior
slope is more rapid than its anterior—the difference in time is thir-
teen minutes at Port Foulke, and fifteen at Van Rensselaer harbor.
Finally, an investigation is given of the velocity of the tide wave
in passing up along Baflin’s bay. From this it appears that the crest
of high water occupies eight hours in passing from the southern cape
of Greenland to Smith’s strait, at the head of the bay. From these
investigations the velocity of the wave in Davis’s straits is 194 statute
miles per hour, correspoding to an average depth of 418 fathoms. In
Baffin’s bay the velocity is 1TT miles, corresponding to 349 fathoms.
In Smith’s strait the velocity is 157 miles per hour, corresponding
to 277 fathoms of depth. It may be interesting to state, as one of the
results, that the free tide-wave in Davis’s strait and Baffin’s bay is
about 2,300 miles in length, and only 73 feet in height from hollow
to crest.
These statements will serve to give some idea of the complex
nature of the investigation of the phenomena of the tides, resulting
not alone from the direct action of the moon and sun, but also
modified by the superposition of the derived tide of the Atlantic, and
by the influence of the configuration of the channels through which
the waves are propagated.
Part fourth gives the observations and discussion of the meteoro-
logical investigations. It is divided into three divisions—tempera-
tures, atmospheric pressures, and winds—with an appendix giving a
record of the weather during the whole voyage, and miscellaneous
remarks.
Port Foulke, the locality of the winter quarters, was in the vicinity
of open polar water, which exercises a marked influence on the cli-
mate of the region. The comparative mildness of the station is illus-
trated by the fact that the simultaneous recorded observations at
Port Foulke and Van Rensselaer harbor show that the tempe-
rature was 26 degrees lower at the latter than at the former place,
though distant only 53 miles. The continuous records at Port Foulke
extend over a period of eleven months, and were made at every other
even hour, day and night, witha few exceptions, (as to the pressure, )
during the whole time.
The expedition was provided with about two dozen thermometers,
consisting of spirit, mercurial, and metallic, of which the index errors
38
34 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
were several times ascertained by immersion in buckets of ice- water,
and by comparison among themselves in the air, at very low tempera-
tures. From all the records of these observations a table of correc-
tions was made out by taking the mean of the temperatures as indi-
cated by the several thermometers. The result was found to indicate
temperatures nearly corresponding with those given by standard No.
3, which had been previously selected as the most trustworthy of the
series of instruments. All omissions inthe records were supplied by
the known methods of interpolation.
The first results obtained are those which relate to the annual fluc-
tuations of temperature. From these it appears that the warmest
day was the 15th of July, with a temperature of 41°.6 Fabr., and the
coldest the 16th of February, with a temperature of —28°.
The mean annual temperature falls on the 22d of April and the
14th of November, and is +6°.06. It must be observed that this
difference in the temperature of the two localities, as we have said
before, is due to the open water, and reached its maximum on the
20th of March, 1861, when the thermometer stood 463 degrees lower
at Rensselaer harbor than at Port Foulke.
The diurnal fluctuation—that is, the difference between the warm-
est and coldest hour of the day—exhibits also a remarkable accordance
at the two places, its amount being 3°.38 at Port Foulke and 3°.64 at
the harbor. At Port Kennedy itis 4°.12. Inthe month of December
the diurnal variation almost vanishes, there being a difference of only
two-tenths of a degree between the highest and lowest hour of the
twenty-four. It attains its maximum value in March, when it is 8°.9.
The fact.that this greatest effect of the day influence of the sun
takes place in March, Mr. Schott is disposed to attribute to the great
amount of vapor which formed at a later period and obscured the di-
rect action of the sun. On the average for the whole year the tem-
perature rises until 23 p. m. and falls till 23 a. m., and the average tem-
perature of the day is reached at 8 o’ clock morning and evening.
The dependence of the temperature on the phases of the moon was
also attempted to be deduced, but the situation of Port Foulke rela-
tive to the disturbing influence of the open water of Smith’s straits
rendered the result unsatisfactory.
The relation of the temperature to the direction of the wind was
next studied, and it was found that the northeast and east winds, or
those which flow over Greenland, are the coldest, while those from the
south, southeast, and southwest, or those which pass over ocean
surfaces, are the warmer. The northeast wind always depresses,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. $5
while the southwest always increases the temperature, especially in
the winter season. The most intense cold was experienced when the
air was perfectly calm, and this appears to be the general rule in the
arctic regions. The effect of the various winds on the whole is small,
not exceeding an elevation or depression of more than a degree and
a half from the mean.
The effect of the snow and rain on the temperature is far greater
than that of the wind. On an average in winter, during every fall of
snow, the temperature was elevated 8°.6, and in summer fell a degree
and a half during a fall of snow or rain. The number of days in which
snows fell was 94, those in which it rained were 15, during the whole
period of eleven months.
The effect of clear and cloudy weather on the temperature is next
considered, and from the result of 82 clear days in winter, it is found
on an average 3} degrees below the normal temperature of these:
days. In summer, from the observations of 41 clear days, the tem-
perature was higher eight-tenths of a degree. In winter, during 31
cloudy days, the temperature was seven degrees above the normal; and
in summer, during 48 cloudy days, the temperature was 2°.1 lower
than the normal.
From the foregoing it appears that a clear atmosphere produces.op-
posite effects in summer and in winter, and this is, without doubt, due
to the greater amount of vapor in the former than in the latter season.
During a clear day in winter the air is almost. entirely deprived of
vapor, and radiation goes on with full energy, uncompensated by
rays from the sun, except those which are very oblique; while insum-
mer the more intense rays of the sun penetrate the vapor, while the
less intense heat from the earth cannot escape through the aqueous
stratum.
The last discussion relates to the direct heating power of the sun
and the record of temperatures observed during the excursion to the
extreme northern point reached. The temperature in the month of
May, 1861, was ten degrees lower along the coast of Kennedy chan-
nel, indicating a colder climate as the explorer went north, but whether
this would be the case during the other parts of the year remains
yet to be verified.
The observations on atmospheric pressure are not as complete as
those on the temperature, the observations between 10 p.m. and 6
a. m. being frequently wanting. All the readings were reduced to
the temperature of 32° Fahrenheit.
The diurnal fluctuation as given by these observations, as well as
36 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
by those of Dr. Kane, is extremely small, scarcely exceeding one-hun-
dredth of an inch. The maximum pressure occurs during the day
at about 63 p. m., and the minimum about 3 in the morning. These,
however, agree generally with those indicated in other arctic locali-
ties. :
At Port Foulke there is also a secondary maximum and minimum
occurring at 8 and 10$.a.m. The annual monthly fluctuation of the
barometer is fully twenty times greater thanthe diurnal variation. In
spring there is a well-marked maximum pressure, and in the autumn
an equally well-exhibited minimum.
It is found from all the observations that the mean atmospheric
pressure of the mercurial column at the temperature of 32° is 29.83,
which accords well with the observations of Kane and McClintock,
and is considerably above the minimum pressure found in about 12
degrees lower latitude. The fluctuation was 1.8 inch—the highest,
30.74; the lowest, 28.93.
The effect of the direction of the wind on the barometer is that of
a depression of .07 of an inch during the northeast, and an elevation
of .04 during the southwest, and a similar elevation during the calms.
The oscillations of the barometer during three storms are illustrated
graphically, and an attempt is made to determine the elastic force of
vapor, but the observations recorded were insufficient; the amount was
very small, not exceeding .02 of an inch.
The direction of the wind was invariably recorded with reference
to the true meridian, and its force estimated by an arbitrary scale
between zero and ten. The general result was, that the quantity
of the stream of air which passed over the place of observation in
the course of a year was nearly 60,000 miles.
The resultant direction during the year is largely from the northeast.
The relative frequency of the wind is given, the northeast being 47
per cent. of the whole, the southwest 17, and the calms 27 per cent.
The average velocity of the wind was 19 miles per hour.
During the eleven months of the observations 25 storms were re-
corded, 19 from the northeast and 6 from the southwest.
Another paper presented for publication, also in the ‘‘ Contribu-
tions,’’ is an account of geological observations in China, Japan,
and Mongolia, by Raphael Pumpelly, of New York. This paper was
read before the National Academy of Sciences, and recommended by
that association to the Smithsonian Institution for publication. In the
summer of 1863 the author passed from Shanghai to Hunan and the
boundary between Hupeh and Sz’chuen, and in the autumn and
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. a
winter and following spring from Peking through the mountains of
western Chihli,and again from Peking, beyond the great wall of China,
and westward on the plateaus along its southern edge to its 112th me-
ridian, returning by a route south of the great wall. In the winter
of 186465 he went from Peking across the plateau of Central Asia
to Siberia. . ;
The almost total absence of observations of a geological character
throughout this wide field, renders any information in regard to it of
considerable interest. The facts:stated are principally derived from
the personal observations of the explorer, together with such inform-
ation as could be obtained from Chinese works which treat of the
geography of the empire, or bear upon its mineral productions. The
principal results arrived at are as follows:
There is reason to believe that there exists throughout China an
immense development of Devonian limestone, which rises to the-sur-
face in all the larger ridges, and attains in some places a thickness of
over 10,000 feet. The formations beneath this limestone, as far as
they were seen, are either granitic rock or metamorphic schist un-
conformably stratified as regards the limestone. Overlying the lime-
stone there exists in almost every part of the country a great coal-
bearing formation of sandstones, shales, conglomerates, &c., in
nearly, if not quite, conformable stratification as regards the floor on
which they rest. The fossil plants obtained from this formation are
considered supra-carboniferous, and it is supposed that the coal
fields of China, which vie with our own in extent, are referable to
the Triassic period. Although from the limited range of actual ob-
servation it would be too much to assert that there is a total absence
of any later formation than these coal measures, still the author failed
to observe any traces of them.
Only two systems of elevations occur in China of sufficient import-
ance to have left a marked impress on the surface. These are the
northeast-southwest and east-west.
The northeast system determines the outline of Asia east of the
110th meridian, and coincides with the middle course of the Yangtse
Kiang and the lower course of the Amur.
The east-west system exists in western Chinain the Min mountains
and in the Nanling range, and determines the general course from
west to east of the three principal rivers of the south of China.
The upheaval of the northeast system began after the deposition
of the great Devonian limestone formation, and appears to have risen
slightly during the formation of the coal measures, but its greatest
elevation was after the latter had been deposited.
a
Oo
8 REPORT OF TIIE SECRETARY.
The east-west system appears to have risen later than the other,
since it has elevated the limestone and overlying rocks which rest
upon its sides. Evidences are presented of recent oscillations ex-
tending over great areas in the form of terraces.
In the great plain of northeastern China is a delta deposit extend-
ing over nearly eight degrees of latitude, which is yearly increasing
in extent. Through this delta the Hwang Ho varies its course every
few centuries, emptying into the sea alternately to the north and to
the south of a mountainous peninsula, thus presenting the remarka-
ble phenomenon of one of the great rivers of the earth not only
shifting its course through several degrees of latitude, but also of
returning to the same bed after the lapse of a number of years.
The great table-land which lies between China and Siberia, where
the author crossed it,consists of basins of undisturbed strata of sand-
stone, containing beds of gypsum. In the south this table-land gen-
_ erally terminates in a precipitous wall, formed of an immense devel-
opment of lava, in some places more than 1,500 feet thick.
The abrupt termination of the plateau is owing to a great disloca-
tion which marks approximately the coast-line of a former ocean to
the north, in which the most recent deposits of the plain originate,
and along whose southern shore there existed an extensive region of
volcanic activity. The plateau is terminated on the east by parallel
ridges, which descend by successive terraces to the low land.
Among the more economical results obtained may be mentioned a
large number of extensive coal basins and the deposits of other use-
ful minerals, which are so widely distributed throughout the empire
as to warrant the belief that China scarcely stands second to any
other country in regard to the quantity and quality of its coal and
its other mineral resources.
Such gifts of nature, says the author, combined as they are with a
variety of favorable circumstances, cannot long be unappreciated.
They are the elements of the civilization of the present age, and in
the natural course of events the country possessing them cannot long
avoid being drawn into the stream of industrial and intellectual pro-
@ress.
Among the papers which have been offered for publication is a vo-
cabulary and grammar of the Nootka Sound language, by the Rev. C.
Knipe. This was the result of a residence of a year and a half
among the tribes inhabiting that portion of the northwest coast of
America. The same language extends southward to Cape Flattery,
and is one upon which very little correct information has been ob-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39
tained. The present work contains lists of more than twelve hundred
native words; with remarks on the genius of the language, and an ac-
count of rogts, terminals, derivations, comparisons, &c. In the report
of one of our collaborators, Mr. George Gibbs, to whom this memoir
was referred, it is stated:
‘‘The Nootka language is an exceedingly interesting one, not only
as the earliest of those of Northwestern America with which we
had any acquaintance, and which enters largely as an element into
the ‘jargon’ of the coast, but also because the people who speak it in
its various dialects form one of five great northern tribes of the Pa-
cific, whose intelligence, courage, and ingenuity have rendered them
conspicuous, and whose industrial arts and physiognomy have fur-
nished an argument with many in favor of their Asiatic origin. The
existing vocabularies of that language are very imperfect and mea-
gre, and the more extended one of Mr. Knipe will be of great value
to comparative philologists.’’
We had decided to put this production to press, when the author
unexpectedly informed us that he was obliged to leave the country
for England, and could not, therefore, give his personal attention to
the work as it was passing through the press. As this was consid-
ered essential, it was thought better that he should withdraw his
manuscript, and endeavor to procure its publication through some
society in England. If he should fail in this, the Institution would
at some future time undertake its publication, since it is intimately
connected with other works of a similar character already given to
the world through the agency of the bequest.
Another paper presented to the Institution for publication is by Mr.
James G. Swan, upon the manners and customs of the Makah Indians
of Washington Territory, a tribe belonging to the Takwaht or |
Nootka Sound family, illustrated with many drawings and accom-
panied by a vocabulary of their language. The size and cost of
publication of this work has prevented us from considering its adop-
tion at present as one of our series.
Miscellaneous Collections. —Under the class of publications called
“ Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,’’ previous to the war,a series
of manuals, intended to facilitate the study of different branches of
natural history, were projected and a number of them actually com-
menced; but the subsequent diminution of our income, and the ad-
vance in the cost of materials and workmanship in the line of print-
ing, has greatly interfered with the rapid completion of this enter-
prise. Of the works of this series as given in the report for 1860,
40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
some have been completed, others are still under way, and one or
two not yet commenced, The following is a statement of their
present condition: 5
1. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part I. Terrestrial Pulmonata.
By W. G. Binney. Of this work the manuscript is entirely com-
pleted and the woodcuts engraved.
2. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part Il. Fresh Water and Ma-
rine Pulmonata. By W. G. Binney. The whole of this work has
been stereotyped, and will soon be ready to be issued.
3. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part Il]. By W. G. Binney.
Including all the water-breathing univalve shells except the Mela-
niade. This work has likewise been stereotyped, and is ready for
publication.
4. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part IV. Melaniade. By G. W.
Tryon. The manuscript of this has been completed and most of the
woodcuts engraved.
5. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part V. Corbiculade. By Tem-
ple Prime. Of this the stereotype plates are almost completed.
6. Land and Fresh Water Shells—part VI. Unionide. A work
by Mr. Lea, of Philadelphia, supersedes for the present any other
publication on this subject.
7. Marine Shells—partI. From the eastern coast of North Amer-
ica, by Dr. W. Stimpson.
8. Marine Shells—part 11. From the western coast of the same
continent, by P. P. Carpenter. The last two works have been com-
menced and numerous woodcuts drawn or engraved to illustrate
them; but no definite period can be fixed for their completion.
9. Bibliography of North American Conchology to the year 1860,
by W. G. Binney, parts land II. This work, which isa supplement
to those previously mentioned, has been stereotyped and copies dis-
tributed to institutions.
Another work belonging to the octavo series, but not included in
the above list, is the Review of American Birds in the Collections of
the Smithsonian Institution—part I. Northern and Middle America.
By Professor 8. F. Baird. é
This work is intended to present a descriptive account of the very
large collection of American birds in charge of the Smithsonian In-
stitution, with an enumeration of such other specimens as may serve
to illustrate the geographical distribution of the several species.
In 1858 Professor Baird prepared an account of the birds sent to the
Institution by the different expeditions for surveying the railroad
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41
routes to the Pacific, which was published in the series of reports
ordered by Congress. To this was added an account of all the birds
of the Atlantic States, and it thus formed a systematic and descrip-
tive work on the ornithology of North America, which has since be-
come the principal standard manual on this subject. A reprint by
the Institution, from this volume, of the catalogue of species has
been widely distributed and much used for labelling collections and
preparing lists for distribution of specimens.
The number of specimens of birds of America in the collection of
the Institution at the time the work was published, and upon which
it was based, was less than 10,000; it now exceeds 40,000.
Many portions of North America unexplored at that time—the
whole arctic region, the recesses of the Rocky mountains, Cape St.
Lucas, &c.—have since been investigated; the migration and distri-
bution southward in winter of the species have been established by
numerous collections from the West Indies, Mexico, Central and
South America, and information generally has been collected, during
the interval of seven years, which tends to complete the knowledge
of the ornithology of North America. In this same period the spe-
cimens received from all parts of Mexico and Central America and
the West Indies are so numerous as to represent nearly all the
known species, and to embrace many new ones, forming, according
to Professor Baird, an aggregate of species much larger than that of
any other single collection.
In order, therefore, to bring up the subject to the present date,
and at the same time to exhibit a connected account of the birds of
Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies, Professor Baird un-
dertook the work referred to, and 320 pages of it have thus far been
published, each signature being dated,to show the time of actual is-
sue. The portion printed embraces an account of the oscine or sing-
ing birds, with synoptical tables and detailed descriptions of the
families, genera,and species, excepting where these have already ap-
peared in the Pacific Railroad Report. As the account of each family
is completed, the duplicate specimens are set aside for distribution
to the principal museums at home and abroad as types of the ‘‘re-
view.”’ .
The work of Professor Baird has met with much commendation
from ornithological writers in this country and Europe. The editor
of the London Ibis, a journal devoted exclusively to ornithology, re-
marks: ‘‘that it will be the book of authority on North American
ornithology for a long time to come, there can be little doubt. The
42 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
immense series of specimens, whether only temporarily lent or de-
posited permanently, (but the latter out of all proportion to the for-
mer,) in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, gives him an
advantage, such as probably no other ornithologist of what country
soever has at any time previously enjoyed; and the professor, as our
readers need not be told, is not the man to neglect opportunities of
this kind. We are almost inclined to regard this work as the pre-
cursor of a new era in natural history. Hitherto a zoologist has
thought he has done very well if he has closely examined some half
dozen specimens, presenting the different appearances depending
upon age, sex, or the like, of one species. He will now find, from
an inspection of Professor Baird’s labors, that an acquaintance with
a much larger number of individuals, especially from different local-
ities, is requisite if he intends to advance his science. One result of
this attention to increased material,if generally followed, we suspect
will be the very desirable one of nullifying the species makers—
species makers, of course we mean, in a bad sense, for there are no
more useful men, if they will but keep their hobbies under com-
mand.”’
From the limited funds of the Institution and its plan of organiza-
tion it cannot afford to support individuals while they are devoted
exclusively to the advance of any branch of science; and were this
to be done in one case, it might be demanded in many. But there
can be no objection to an officer of the Institution availing himself of
the materials which are gathered through its agency for prosecut-
ing as an extra labor any investigation to which he may be inclined;
provided that at the same time he faithfully discharges all the essen-
tial duties which pertain to his position. In the preparation of the
work above mentioned every facility has been given to Professor Baird
which the establishment could afford, and with this view special
attention has been paid to the collection of specimens of ornithology,
with the view that, after this work has been completed, similar atten-
tion will be given in succession to other branches of science.
Another paper in the Miscellaneous Collections is entitled
Researches upon the Hydrobiine and allied forms, chiefly from mate-
rials in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, by Dr. William
Stimpson. This memoir gives the results of an investigation relative
to the structure of agroup of small and little known fresh-water Gaster-
opods, which Dr. Stimpson had undertaken to study with a view to their
classification and arrangement in the museum of the Institution. Un-
der the name of Gasteropods are included mollusks, with a distinct
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43
head, and which generally have a flat foot, adapted to crawling, and
are also usually provided with a univalve shell. The search for the
affinities and relations of these animals led to an examination of the
allied types inhabiting the sea and brackish water. The results of
the investigation were a more exact definition of the family to which
they belong, and the extension of it so as to include otber forms pre-
viously scattered; also the establishment on anatomical bases of a
number of subordinate groups or sub-families, and the suggestions as
to many new genera distinguished by peculiarities in the structure of
the soft parts as well as the shell. This memoir not only furnishes
an interesting addition to descriptive natural history, but a method
of investigation which may be advantageously applied to other fami-
lies of the class.
Dr. Stimpson, who was the naturalist to the Northwest Pacific
Exploring Expedition, under Commodore John Rodgers, is now in
charge of the Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. He has
spent several years, while preparing his report on the collections of
the expedition, in the building of the Institution, and, without salary
from the Smithson fund, has rendered us essential service in the clas-
sification and naming of specimens.
The work on the Myriapoda of North America, by Dr. H. C. Wood,
jr., mentioned in previous reports, was completed and was awaiting
its turn for publication, when it was unfortunately destroyed by the
fire. It was subsequently rewritten, and as our funds did not per-
mit its being immediately put to press, it was, with the consent of
the Institution, offered to and accepted by the American Philosophi-
cal Society, and printed in the thirteenth volume of its transactions.
The wood-cuts (about sixty) which had been prepared for the work
were lent to the society to facilitate the publication. These facts are
stated in the memoir, and full credit given to the Smithsonian Insti-
tution for the aid thus rendered.
The close of the war having released Dr. John Le Conte from his
medical duties in connexion with the army, he has resumed his labors
in entomology, and has already written a considerable portion of his
‘‘List of North American Coleoptera,’’ andthe ‘‘ Description of New
Species,’’ which will be published during 1866. When these works
are completed, he will commence the second part of his classification
of coleoptera.
fteports.—During the last three years the government printing office
was so busied with the preparation of documents connected with
the war that the Annual Report of the Institution was inciden-
44 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
tally delayed, but the report for 1864 was finished and distributed
at an earlier period than had been possible for several previous
years. The demand for these reports is every year increasing, and we
learn from the members of both houses that no document printed by
Congress is more frequently called for.
It is greatly to be regretted that the extra copies of all the volumes
of the reports previous to 1863, which were stored in the rooms of
the towers, were destroyed by the fire, and that we are therefore
unable any longer to furnish complete sets or to supply missing vol-
umes to various institutions and correspondents that have applied for
them. The reports since 1861, inclusive, have been stereotyped, so
that at any future time an edition of any of these volumes may be
printed; but with the high price of paperand press-work, and with
the heavy demands on the Institution, this is at present impracti-
cable.
The report for 1864 contains in the appendix a eulogy of Delambre,
the eminent astronomer, translated by C. A. Alexander, esq., and a
continuation of the series of memoirs of distinguished members of the
French Academy of Sciences; an essay on the velocity of light, by
M. Delaunay, translated by Professor A. M. Mayer; an original com-
pilation on ozone and antozone, made for the Institution by Dr. Charles
M. Wetherill; translation of Jamin’s essay on vegetation and the at-
mosphere; extract of a memoir on the preservation of copper and
iron in salt water, by M. Becquerel, furnished by Admiral C. H.
Davis, United States navy; translations of articles on the preservation
of wood and caoutchouc and gutta-percha, from the German periodi-
cal ‘‘ Aus der Natur;’’ an article on gun-cotton by Lieutenant Von
Karolyi, with notes by Dr. B. F. Craig, of this city; a translation by
Professor Ten Brook of a description of Pettenkofer’s apparatus for
testing the results of perspiration and respiration; a translation by the
late Professor Hubbard, of the Naval Observatory, of Lamont’s report
on the solar eclipse of July 18,1860; a report of the transactions of
the Society of Physics and Natural History of Geneva, 1861 and
1862, translated by C. A. Alexander; a letter from F. Troyon on the
crania Helvetica, with illustrations; a continuation of Plateau’s
researches on the figures of equilibrium of a liquid mass withdrawn
from the action of gravity, with numerous illustrations; an original
article on the artificial shell deposits in Monmouth county, New Jer-
sey, and a continuation of Baegert’s account of the aboriginal inhabi-
tants of the California peninsula, translated by Professor Charles Rau;
an article on the ‘‘intermixture of races,’’ by George Gibbs; a lec-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45
ture on the first steps in the study of high antiquity in Europe, pre-
pared for the Institution by A. Morlot, of Switzerland; the prize
questions proposed by various scientific societies in Europe; a report
on the French scientific exploration of Mexico; an account of a jour-
ney to the Youcan, by W. W. Kirby, of an exploration in Upper
California, by John Feilner, of an exploration of Western Missouri,
by Dr. P. R. Hoy, with tables of weights and measures and chemi-
cal equivalents.
From this list it will be seen that the articles in the appendix con-
sist principally of translations from foreign scientific publications not
generally accessible to readers in this country, and of original articles
prepared especially for the Institution.
At an early period it had been proposed to establish a printing
office in connexion with the Institution, and the experiment was
eventually tried. The result, however, conclusively proved that the
expense of keeping up an establishment of this kind was far greater
than the cost of having the printing done elsewhere. The ‘‘Contri-
butions’? and “Miscellaneous Collections’? have principally been
printed by Mr. T. K. Collins, of Philadelphia, whose execution of the
work has been highly satisfactory, and who has had at his disposal
unusual facilities for performing the various kinds of printing required
in our diversified series of publications.
In consideration of the high price of paper and printing, and in
order that it might be always in our power to issue neav editions of any
of our works, it has been thought advisable for the last four years to
stereotype all our publications, and, for the security of the plates, to
store them in a fire-proof receptacle. In view of this latter object,
application was made to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia for the use of a portion of the extensive fire-proof basement
of its building. This proposition was cordially acceded to by the
curators of the academy; a separate room was set apart for our ac-
commodation, and all the plates not in actual use by the printer are
now deposited in an apartment entirely secure from fire, and under
the exclusive control of the Institution. The favor thus conferred
by the academy is an illustration of the friendly relations which
exists between this Institution and other establishments for the ad-
vancement of knowledge; andI scarcely need say that special thanks,
in behalf of the Board of Regents, have been given to the society for
its liberality and kindness in this matter.
Ethnology.—As we have stated in previous reports, this has beena
subject to which the Institution has given particular attention. In-
‘AG REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
deed, it is one which especially commends itself to the science and
literature of this country, since it is intimately connected with our
history and politics. Unfortunately, however, the subject of races
is one which involves questions as to their origin and characteristics
which can scarcely be discussed at the present time with that dispas-
sionate logic and strictness of induction which is necessary to the
establishment of truth. Still, much can be done in the way of col-
lecting and recording facts which may serve as the basis of future in-
vestigation. Some of these, such as those relative to the Indians, are
rapidly passing into oblivion; and others, which regard the negro,
require to be disentangled from much prejudice and misrepresenta-
tion. “The peculiarities of these races should be critically examined
and truthfully recorded; to do this is a duty we owe to science and
humanity.
One of the most important clues we have to guide us in the laby-
rinth of ethnological research is language; and this is essentially the
case with regard to the aboriginal races of this continent. The re-
mains of their implements, and even their earthworks, may, in a
considerable degree, be referred to the common wants and instincts of
humanity, as in the use of the bow and arrow; but their language affords
indications of affiliation or diversity not otherwise attainable. It has
therefore been considered an important object to devise a system of
general characters which would express to philologists in every part
of the world identity of sounds. Unfortunately, however, though
much labor has been expended on attempts to construct such
a system, none has yet been presented which is entirely sat-
isfactory, or has been generally adopted. Indeed, either from trans-
mitted peculiarities or acquired habits, commencing with the instinct-
ive use of the mother tongue, men of different languages apparently
become incapable of accurately discriminating particular vocal sounds
with which early usage has not familiarized them, and on this account
a system of characters as a general alphabet which will give universal
satisfaction is scarcely to be hoped for. We must therefore be con-
tent, at least for the present, to represent the sounds of the remains
of the language of the red men of our continent in such characters as
shall best serve to preserve their general features, with a view to fu-
ture comparison and discussion. Such an alphabet has beenadopted
on the recommendation of Professor Whitney, of Yale College, and
Mr. George Gibbs, of this city, to whom the subject was referred.
It is accompanied by a vocabulary to be filled up with the equivalent
words of the dialect under consideration, expressed in common letters,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. AT
the sounds of which are fixed by reference to well-known English
words in which these letters occur. In this way an attempt is made
to express the several sounds without confusing the inquirer with
new characters or numerous marks.
That the number of dialects which exist on this continent should
be great is not surprising, when we reflect on the condition of the
people previous to the advent of the Europeans. They had, without
doubt, for a long time occupied the soil, and bad probably arrived at
that condition as to numbers in which the struggle for life is carried
on with the greatest intensity, and in which sufficient food from the
chase can only be obtained by separation into small tribes, or even
families; a condition in which various dialects of one prevailing lan-
guage would necessarily be produced.
Instructions for researches relative to ethnology in general have
been prepared by Geo. Gibbs, esq., and were published in 1863, and
a large number of copies distributed to officers of the United States
government and others, particularly to those residing in the western
portion of the continent. During the past year an appendix to these
instructions, together with blank forms for systematic records, has
been prepared by the same author and published by the Institution.
The instructions and blank forms which have been sent out have
produced a valuable return in vocabularies, weapons, implements,
dresses, and other illustrations of the arts, manners and customs, and
mental advancement of the aboriginal races of this continent. The
vocabularies received have been given in charge to Mr. Gibbs, to
whom the Institution is largely indebted for months of labor gratui-
tously rendered. :
lt is proposed, as soon as the funds will permit, to publish a descrip-
tive catalogue of all the ethnological specimens in the possession of the
Institution. These include, beside those from different parts of this
country, those collected by the United States Exploring Expedition un-
der Captain (now Admiral) Wilkes, from the islands of the Pacific, the
East Indies, Africa, China and Japan, and Central and South Amer-
ica. Such a catalogue, properly illustrated with wood-cut engravings,
from photograph drawings, would be an acceptable addition to the
literature of ethnology.
At the commencement of the war preparations were made by the
Institution to obtain records of the physical characteristics of the
soldiers composing the army of the United States, embracing a large
number of measurements of different parts of the body, to ascertain
the peculiarities of the different nationalities represented. This work
48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
was afterwards prosecuted on a much more extended scale than was
compatible with the means of the Institution by the Sanitary Com-
mission, and the observations have since been discussed by Dr. B, A.
Gould, of Cambridge, who has deduced from them a series of novel
and interesting results, which were lately presented to the National
Academy. It is proposed to extend similar measurements to the
Indian tribes, and it is very desirable that the negro should be em-
braced in the same investigation. We have in this country at
the present time a better opportunity to study the peculiarities of
a number of races than is perhaps to be found in any other single
portion of the earth, and the most casual observer cannot but be
struck with the marked difference which exists between the Indian,
the negro, and indeed between the descendants of the civilized in-
habitants of different parts of Europe, thousands of whom are now
flocking to our shores.
The stubborn self-reliance and impatience of control of the Indian
are strikingly contrasted with the docility and imitative qualities of the
negro. The inflexibility of the characteristics of the former, with the
gradual changes and amelioration of the character of the latter in his
association with the white man, are worthy of special attention.
It may be proper here to mention that we have received a commu-
nication from Dr. E. H. Davis, one of the authors of the first volume
of Smithsonian Contributions, pointing out an error in Lubbock’s ac-
count of Smithsonian publications on ethnology, copied from the Nat-
ural History Review, of London, in our report for 1862. In this
article (page 322) the sculptured stone pipes found in the mounds are
classed under the head of pottery. This error, says Dr. Davis, does
injustice not only to American aboriginal art, but also misleads Euro-
pean ethnologists in regard to a series of sculptures pronounced by
all who have seen them to be illustrations of the highest stage of art
attained in the stone age of America. The same mistake is now re-
produced in the publications of the Anthropological Society of Lon-
don, and in Lubbock’s Prehistoric Times. The fact is that the pipes
described in the first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions were
not of terra-cotta. None of this kind were found in the mounds, and
but few anywhere in the country.
Intimately connected with ethnology and anthropology is arche-
ology, or the study of remains of the ancient inhabitants of a coun-
try. To those who have paid any attention to the subject, it is well
known that recently very interesting discoveries have been made of
the remains of lacustrine villages in Switzerland, Italy, and Germany;
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49
and also that memorials of the early inhabitants of the Scandinavian
peninsula have been recognized in the extensive heaps of shells,
mostly those of the oyster, which were for a long time considered as
formations of the sea, but which have been shown by the Danish
savans to be the accumulated household refuse of populations who
lived in ages ascending beyond the records of history. The indica-
tions of the artificial origin of these accumulations consist in the
total absence of stratification which always characterizes marine de-
posits, and in the fact that the rubbish contains rude flint imple-
ments, charcoal cinders, and the bones of various animals, some of
which are, at present, extinct in the districts in which these mounds
exist.
In our own country, besides the well-known Indian mounds con-
structed for special purposes, such as for sepulture and religious
observances, and as monuments of events, there are found on various
parts of the coast shell mounds, which, like those of Denmark, are
composed of the refuse of the repasts of the aborigines, and which
will undoubtedly reward the research of the archeologist with inter-
esting facts in regard to the ancient inhabitants of the land we now
inhabit. Among the first essays in this line are those of Mr. Charles
Rau, of New York, published in the last report of this Institution.
They relate to an examination of mounds of this kind on the shores
of New Jersey. These indicate the places where the aborigines
were accustomed to feast upon the spoils of the neighboring beach,
remarkable for the abundance of oysters, clams, and other edible
mollusks. The places selected for this purpose were at some dis-
tance inland, and sufficiently elevated to be out of reach of high
tide. The direct evidence that these shell accumulations are of an
artificial character consists in the presence of numerous fragments of
pottery and stone implements.
In one of the heaps and in the adjacent fields Mr. Rau obtainéd
more than 300 specimens of Indian manufacture, consisting of stone
axes, arrows and spear points, flint knives, and many pieces of broken
crockery. The axes are of greenstone, or of sandstone, of the usual
shape, and encircled by a groove for the attachment of a handle. That
the manufacture of arrow heads was carried on in this place is evi-
dent from the great number of flint chips and unfinished arrow heads
which lie scattered among the shells. These places were probably
camping grounds at certain seasons of the year. It is said that
similar shell-beds occur on Long Island, where the shells are used
for burning lime. They also exist in Georgia, on the coast of Mas-
4s
50 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
sachusetts, in Newfoundland, and in California; and now that atten-
tion has been specially directed to the subject, they will probably
be found and examined in various parts of this continent.
The occurrence of the Danish shell-heaps, whose history is merged
in the twilight of civilization, and those of a similar character in
America, show that the early condition of man is everywhere essen-
tially the same, while the rude implements which are obtained
from them indicate a similarity of wants and an identity of mental
characteristics by which these wants are supplied.
The Institution has given special attention to the collection of
specimens to illustrate the archeology of this country, and now pos-
sesses, with those procured by the Exploring Expedition under Cap-
tain Wilkes, those obtained from the various expeditions under the
auspices of the Institution, and from the Hudson’s Bay Company, a
more valuable series than any to be found elsewhere in the United
States. An effort will be made during the present year to properly
arrange and fully display them for study. The comparison of the
early savage implements in different countries is full of interest. We
see from this that what is called the stone age is not a period of
absolute time, but a stage of civilization, long past in one portion of
the earth, while existing at present in another.
Meteorology.—lt has been aptly said that man is a meteorologist by
nature. He is placed in such a state of dependence upon the atmo-
spheric elements, that to watch their vicissitudes and to endeavor to
anticipate their changes become objects of paramount importance.
Indeed the interest in this subject is so absolute that the common
salutation among civilized nations is a meteorological wish, and the
first introduction to conversation among strangers is a meteorological
remark. Yet there is no circumstance which is remembered
with so little exactness as the previous condition of the wea-
ther, even from week to week. In order that its fluctuations
may be preserved as facts of experience, it is necessary that they
should be continuously and accurately registered. Again, there is,
perhaps, no branch of science relative to which so many obser-
vations have been made and so many records accumulated, and
yet from which so few general principles have been deduced. This
has arisen, first, from the real complexity of the phenomena, or, in
other words, from the number of separate causes influencing the pro-
duction of the ordinary results; second, from the improper methods
which have been pursued in the investigation of the subject, and the
amount of labor required in the reduction and discussion of the ob-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51
servations. Although the primary causes of the change of the
weather are, on the one hand, the alternating inclination of the sur-
face of the earth to the rays of the sun, by which its different parts
are unequally heated in summer and in winter, and, on the other, the
moisture which is elevated from the ocean in the warmer and precip-
itated upon the colder portions of the globe; yet the effects of these
are so modified by the revolution of the earth on its axis, the condi-
tion and character of the different portions of its surface, and the
topography of each country, that to strictly calculate the perturba-
tions or predict the results of the simple laws of atmospheric
equilibrium with that precision which is attainable in astronomy, will
probably ever transcend the sagacity of the wisest, even when as-
sisted by the highest mathematical analysis. But although such
precision cannot be looked for, approximations may still be obtained
of great importance in their practical bearing on the every-day
business of life.
The greater part of all the observations which have been recorded
until within a few years past has been without system or co-ordina-
tion. It is true that the peculiar climate of a given place may be
determined by a long series of isolated observations, but such obser-
vations, however long continued, or industriously and accurately made,
can give no adequate idea of the climate of a wide region, of the
progress of atmospheric changes, nor can they furnish an approxi-
mation to the general laws of the recurrence of phenomena. Tor
this purpose a system of observation must be established over widely
extended regions within which simultaneous records are made and
periodically transmitted to a central position, where, by proper
reduction and discussion, such general conclusions may be reached as.
the materials are capable of yielding.
In discussing the records,the empirical method does not suffice. It
is necessary that @ prior? assumptions should be provisionally adopted,
not, however, at random, but chosen in strict accordance with well-
established physical principles, and that these be finally adopted, re-
jected, or modified, as they are found to agree or disagree with the
records. Itisonly by this method that the different causes which co-
operate in the production of a series of complex phenomena can be dis-
covered, as is illustrated in the history of astronomy, which, previous to
the investigations of Kepler, consisted of an unintelligible mass of
records of observations. But even with the application of the best
possible process of discussion, the labor necessary to: be expended
on such large masses of figures, in order to deduce simple results, is
52 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
far beyond any individual effort, and can only be properly accom-
plished by governmental aid. |
The importance of a combined system of meteorological observa-
tions extending over a large area, and the peculiar advantages pre-
sented by our country for this object, were early appreciated, and
such a system was commenced in 1819, under the direction of Dr.
Lovell, Surgeon General of the army. The stations embraced the
principal military posts, from which reports were made at the end
of each month as to the temperature, the pressure, and the moisture
of the air, the amount of rain, the direction and force of the wind,
the appearance of the sky, besides casual phenomena, such as the
aurora, thunder-storms, shooting stars, &c. In 1825 a similar system,
of more numerous stations in proportion to the area embraced, was
established in the State of New York, the points of observations
being the several academies, under the direction of the board of
regents of the university, an establishment having charge of the
higher institutions of learning in that State.
In 1837 the legislature of Pennsylvania made an appropriation of
four thousand dollars for instruments, which were distributed to vol-
untary observers. This system was continued about ten years; that
of New York has been kept up with more or less efficiency until the
present time; while the army system was continued until the com-
mencement of the war.
The lake system, established by the engineer department, under
the superintendence of Captain (now General) Meade, consists of a
line of stations, extending from the western part of Lake Superior to
the eastern part of Lake Ontario, and has been efficiently continued
for several years.
The Smithsonian meteorological system was commenced in 1849,
and, with occasional aid in defraying the expenses, has continued in
operation until the present period. It was, however, much diminished
in efficiency during the war, since from the southern States no records
were received, and many of the observers at the north were called to
abandon such pursuits for military service in the field. The efforts
of the institution in this line have been directed to supplementing and
‘harmonizing all the other systems, preparing and distributing blank
forms and instructions, calculating and publishing extensive tables for
the reduction of observations, introducing standard instruments, and col-
lecting all public documents, printed matter, and manuscript records
bearing on the meteorology of the American continent, submitting
these materials to scientific discussion, and publishing the results. In
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 53
these labors the Institution has been in continued harmonious co-ope-
ration with all the other efforts made in this country to advance
meteorology, except those formerly conducted by the Navy Depart-
ment under Lieutenant Maury. These were confined exclusively to
the sea, and had no reference to those made at the same time on land.
Without desiring to disparage the labors of Lieutenant Maury, I may
say that his results would have lost nothing of their value by the
adoption of a less exclusive policy on his part. The meteorology of
the sea and that of the land pertain to a connected series of pheno-
mena which can only be properly studied by a combined system of ob-
servations relating to both. The method pursued by Lieutenant Maury
consisted in dividing the surface of a map of the ocean into squares of
ten degrees on a side, and in recording within each of these the di-
rections of the winds obtained from the log-books of the vessels which
had traversed the several regions. In this way he accumulated a large
amount of data, which, though published in connexion with many
crude hypotheses, are of great value in the study of the meteorol-
ogy of the globe.
In 1853 a meteorological system was commenced in Canada, the
senior grammar school in each county being provided with instru-
ments, and the observations have been continued to the present
time. In regard to this system, Mr. Hodgins, of the educational de-
partment, remarks: ‘‘ We have never lost sight of the great practi-
cal importance to a new and partially settled country, of establish-
ing early in its history, before its physical condition is materially
changed, a complete and comprehensive system of meteorological
observations, by which may be tested theories of science which are
yet unsettled,and which may be solved, relating to natural phenomena
which have long remained among the sealed mysteries of nature.’’
The observations thus far have been taken without remuneration,
but the importance of the system has become so well recognized
that the Canadian government has decided to establish ten perma-
nent stations, in addition to the observatories at Toronto and Kings-
ton, distributed so as to afford the most complete information relative
to the climatic features of the whole province. The points selected
are Windsor, Goderich, Stratford, Simcoe, Barrie, Hamilton, Peter-
borough, Belleville, Pembroke, and Cornwall; that is, two stations
on Lake Erie, one on Lake Huron, three on Lake Ontario, one on
Lake Simcoe, one on the Ottawa river, one on the bay of Quinté,
one on the St. Lawrence, near the eastern,extremity of the province,
and two in the interior of the country. The records made at the
public schools of Canada have been furnished to the Smithsonian In-
54 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
stitution, as well as to the committee on immigration of the House
of Assembly, for the purpose of furnishing facts relative to the
climate, of importance to settlers, and recently the department of
royal engineers has applied for the returns, with a view to the con-
sideration of their bearing on questions of defence.
To secure a greater degree of responsibility, and to promote the
efficiency of the system, the government has provided for the pay-
ment of fifty cents a day to the teachers of the grammar schools at
the stations before enumerated, as remuneration for the service ren-
dered.
Under the direction of the distinguished academician Kupfer, there
is established over the vast Russian territory a network of thirty
meteorological stations, where are noted the various changes of the
atmosphere as to temperature, pressure, moisture, &c. The most
northern of these stations is at Hammerfest, in 70° 41’ north latitude,
21° 26’ east longitude from Paris, and the most southern is at Tiflis,
in 41° 42’ north latitude, and 42° 30’ east longitude. <A similar
system of simultaneous observations has been for several years in-op-
eration in Great Britain and Ireland, in connexion with the Board of
Trade, and under the direction of the late Admiral Fitzroy. Other
and like systems have been established in France, Italy, and Holland.
From these different organizations, as well as from insulated observa-
tories, telegrams of the weather are sent every morning, at seven
o’ clock, from the principal cities of Europe to Paris, where, under the
superintendence of the celebrated Leverrier, they are discussed, and
the results transmitted by mail to all parts of the world in the suc-
cessive numbers of the daily International Bulletin. A similar publi-
cation is periodically made in Italy, under the direction of M. Mat-
teucci, so well and favorably known by his discoveries in physics.
The British government has also establisked a system of observations
for the sea, and furnished its navy with accurate instruments, care-
fully compared with the standards of the Kew observatory. It is es-
timated in a report to Parliament that, through an annual appropria-
tion of about fifty thousand dollars, statistics may be collected in
fifteen years sufficient, with what has already been obtained, to deter-
mine the average movement of the winds on every part of the ocean.
From the great interest which has been awakened in regard to me-
teorology throughout the world, and the improved methods which
have been adopted in its study, it can scarcely be doubted that in a
few years the laws of the general movements of the atmosphere will
be ascertained, and the causes of many phenomena of the weather,
which have heretofore been regarded as little else than the capricious
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 55
and abnormal impulses of nature, will become adequately known; al-
though, from the number of these causes, and the complexity of the
resultant effect, it may never be possible to deduce accurate pre-
dictions as to the time and particular mode of their occurrence.
Indeed, the results which have been already derived from the series
of combined observations in this country, fully justify the wisdom and
forethought of those who were instrumental in establishing them.
Although their organization was imperfect, the observers, in most
cases, untrained, and the instruments of an inferior character, yet
they have furnished data which, through the labors of Redfield, Espy,
and Hare, whose memories are preserved in the history of science,,
have led to the establishment of principles of high theoretical inter-
est, as well as of great practical value. Among these I need here
mention only-the fact now fully proved that all the meteorological
phenomena of at least the middle and more northern portions of
_ the temperate zone are transmitted from west to east. The passage
of storms from one part of the country to the other was noticed by Dr.
Franklin on the occasion of observing an eclipse of the moon. He
showed that our northeast storms are felt successively later and later
as the point of observation is further to the northeast; that they
arrive last at the extreme northeastern portions of our continent,
We now know, however, that the successive appearance of the
storm at points further along the coast is due to the easterly move-
ments, sideways as it were, of an atmospheric disturbance, greatly
elongated north and south, and reaching sometimes from Canada to
the Gulf of Mexico. Hence to persons residing along the seaboard
the phenomenon would appear to have a northwardly progression, on
account of the northeasterly trend of the coast; yet the storm not un-
frequently reaches Bermuda simultaneously with Nova Scotia.
Few persons can have failed to observe the continued motion of the
higher clouds from the west, or to have recognized,the just meteor-
oscopy of Shakspeare in a well-known passage:
‘‘The weary sun hath made a golden set,
And by the bright track of his fiery car
Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.’’
The breaking forth of the sun just before his setting shows that
the rear of the cloud which has obscured his beams has, in its east-
erly course, reached our horizon, and will soon give place to an un-
obscured sky.
It must be observed, however, that all the storms which visit our
coast are not of this nature; those denominated cyclones, and which sel-
dom extend far into the interior, are probably of a rotatory character.
56 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
These usually commence in the Caribbean sea, move first toward the
northwest, and gradually curving round before they reach our lati-
tude, take an easterly direction, as has been shown by Redfield and
others.
The first practical application which was attempted of the prin-
ciple we have mentioned was made by this Institution in 1856;
the information conveyed by telegraphic despatches in regard to
the weather was daily exhibited by means of differently colored
tokens, on a map of the United States, so as to show at one view the
meteorological condition of the atmosphere over the whole country.
-At the same time publication of telegraphic despatches was made
in the newspapers. The system, however, was necessarily discon-
tinued at the beginning of the war, and has not yet been resumed.
Similar applications have since been made.in other countries, par-
ticularly in England, under the late Admiral Fitzroy; in France, un-
der Leverrier; and still later, in Italy. In the last-mentioned country .
tabular statements are to be published annually, comparing the pre-
dictions with the weather actually experienced.
The British government has also recently introduced the system of
telegraphic meteorological predictions into India. The cyclone of
October, 1864, which did such damage to the shipping in Calcutta
and destroyed the lives of sixty thousand persons, called special at-
tention to the subject. The Asiatic Society of Bengal estimated the
cost of such a system at 67,090 rupees, (about $30,000,) a sum which
the government hesitated to appropriate, though it decided to fur-
nish the necessary instruments and an allowance of fifty rupees a
month to the assistant at the telegraph station at Saugor, on the sea-
board to the southward of Calcutta, in the direction from which the
most severe storms approach that port.
It must be evident, from what we have said in regard to the move-
ment of storms, that a system of telegraphic meteorological predic-
tions would be at once more reliable and of more benefit to the
eastern coast of the United States, than those made in England and
France, on the western coast of Europe, could possibly be to those
countries, since the disturbances of the atmosphere which reach them
advance from the ocean, while the majority of those of a similar nature
which visit especially the middle and eastern portions of our coast,
come overland from a westerly or southwesterly direction, and their
approach may be telegraphed in some cases many hours before their
actual arrival.
But the expense of the proper establishment of a system of this kind
=
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Aq
can only be defrayed by the general government, or some organiza-
tion in possession ef more ample means than can be applied by the
Smithsonian Institution to such a purpose. This will be evident from
the fact which we have mentioned of the cost of the establishment
of a similar system in India, and from a report of a committee of the
two houses of Parliament appointed to consider certain questions
relating to the meteorological department of the Board of Trade.
From this it appears that the amount expended during the eleven
years ending with 1865 was 45,000 pounds sterling, or an average
of about $20,000 a year. The same committee recommend that
meteorological observations at sea be continued under the direc-
tion of the hydrographic office of the admiralty, and an appropria-
tion of £1,500 annually be made for instruments, and for discussion
and publication of results, £1,700; making a total of £3,200.
For weather statistics on land, the annual sum of £4,250, includ-
ing instruments, discussion, and publications, is recommended, and
for telegram storm warnings, £3,000; making a total annual ex-
penditure of £7,450 for the land, and a grand annual total for land
and sea of £10,450, or $52,250.
The present would appear to be a favorable time to urge upon
Congress the importance of making provision for reorganizing all the
meteorological observations of the United States under one combined
plan, in which the records should be sent to a central depot for dis-
cussion and final publication. An appropriation of $50,000 annually
for this purpose would tend not only to advance the material interest
of the country, but also to increase its reputation. It would show
that although the administration of our government is the expression
of the popular volition, it is not limited in its operation merely to
objects of instant or immediate utility, but that, with a wise prevision
of the future, it withholds its assistance from no enterprise, however
remote the results, which has for its end to advance the well-being of
humanity.
It is scarcely necessary at this day to dwell on the advantages which
result from such svstems of combined observations as those which the
principal governments of Europe have established and are now con-
stantly extending. I may, however, in passing, briefly allude to some
facts which may not at once occur to the mind of the general reader.
They enable the mariner to shorten the time and diminish the danger
of the passage from one port to another by indicating to him the
route along which prevail, at a particular season of the year, the
most favorable winds for his purpose. They also furnish the means
7
58 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
by which the sailor is taught the important lesson, which has saved
thousands of lives and millions of property, namely, that of finding
the direction of the centre of the cyclone, and of determining the
course in which he must steer in order to extricate himself from the
destructive violence of this fearful scourge of the ocean. To the
agriculturist they indicate the character of the climate of the country,
and enable him, with certainty, to select the articles of culture best
adapted to the temperature and moisture of the region, and which,
in the course of a number of years, will insure him the most profita-
ble returns for his labor. They furnish the statistics of the occur-
rence of sterile years and of devastating storms, which may serve as
the bases on which to found insurance institutions for protection
against the failure of crops, and thus give to the husbandman the
same certainty in his pursuits as that possessed by the merchant or
the-ship-owner. They may also afford warning of the approach of
severe frosts and violent storms in time to guard, at least in some
degree, against their injurious effects. To the physician, a knowledge
of such results as can be obtained from an extended system of obser-
vations is of great importance, not only in regard to the immediate
practice of his art, but also to the improvement of his science. The
peculiar diseases of a region are principally dependent on its climate;
an extreme variation of temperature in a large city is invariably at-
tended with an increase of the number of deaths. The degree and
variation of the moisture at different times and in different places
have also a great influence on diseases, and the more the means of
studying the connexion of these elements and the corresponding con-
dition of the human body are multiplied, the more will the art and
the science of medicine be improved. I may mention that scarcely
a week passes at the Institution in which application is not made for
meteorological information relative to different parts of this country,
with the hope to improve the condition, if not restore the health, of
some patient. The knowledge, however, which at present exists as
to the connexion of climate and disease, particularly in relation to
our own country, is, in comparison to what might be obtained, of
little significance.
No other part of the world can at all compare with this country in
the conditions most favorable to the advancement of meteorology, by
means of a well-organized and properly sustained system of combined
observations ; such a system extending from east to west more than
two thousand miles would embrace in its investigation all the phe-
nomena of the great upper current of the return trade-wind, which,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59
continually flowing over us at a high elevation, carries most of the
disturbances of the atmosphere eastward. It would also include the
effects produced by the polar and equatorial currents as they contend
for the mastery along the broad valley which stretches without inter-
ruption from the arctic circle to the Gulf of Mexico, and would settle
with precision the influence of the great fresh-water lakes in amelio-
rating the climate of the adjacent regions. But above all, in a popu-
lar view, it would furnish the means more effectually than any other
system of predicting the approach of storms and of giving the ships
of our Atlantic coast due warning of the probability of danger.
Collections. —In the preceding reports an important distinction has
been made between the collections of the Institution intended for
the immediate advance and diffusion of a knowledge of natural his-
tory, and the museum intended for popular exhibition; while the for-
mer is in strict conformity with the catholic spirit of the bequest,
and can be prosecuted in due relation to the various other branches
of knowledge, having each an equal claim on the bounty of the fund,
the latter is principally local in its character, and demands a per-
petual outlay of a portion of the annual income, which tends contin-
ually to increase with the additions to the number of objects exhib-
ited, and finally to absorb all the resources of the establishment.
Although the museum has been principally restricted to the mainte-
nance and exhibition of the articles of the exploring expeditions of the
government, and to such type specimens as might serve to illustrate
the publications of the Institution, yet its cost has exceeded that of
all the active operations which have rendered the name of Smith-
son favorably known in every part of the civilized world. This
statement will not be thought incorrect when it is considered that to
its account may justly be charged the absorption of the annual inter-
est of the money expended on the building, a sum which will now
be greatly enhanced by the cost of the restoration.
I have thought it important to refer to this point in almost every
annual report, in order that what I deem a fundamental policy of
the Institution should be kept constantly in view, namely, the preser-
vation of the income of the Smithsonian fund as untrammelled as possi-
ble, and free tg be applied to assist in the solution of any scientific
problem which may present itself, or in any other way to extend the
present bounds of human knowledge. A well replenished purse, un-
incumbered with debt and free to be applied to any purpose, is a
source of power as important to an establishment for the advance or
diffusion of knowledge as it is to an individual.
60 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
By these remarks I do not intend to disparage the value of public
museums; so far from this, I can freely say that I consider them of
great importance as a means of intellectual improvement, of rational
enjoyment, and as receptacles of interesting materials for the use of
the student in any branch of learning. By the foregoing remarks I
merely wish to urge the fact that an establishment of this kind,
worthy of the seat of government of the United States, can only be
supported by appropriations from Congress, and to express the
opinion that so large an expenditure in the imperfect attempt to
found a museum by means of the Smithson bequest will in time be
abandoned, and the whole of the income devoted to the more cosmo-
politan objects of the Institution.
In the last report a general account is given of what has been
done by the Institution towards forming such collections, and
during the past year this portion of the general operations has been
carried on with unabated success. Although it might appear that
the older settled portions of the country had been thoroughly laid
under contribution, yet new questions are continually arising, and
attention is devoted to less obvious features, as the subject of natural
history is more minutely pursued. But still there are vast portions
even of the United States which remain in a considerable degree un-
explored. In the eastern portion the explorations in 1865, under
the auspices of the Institution, have been chiefly confined to the col-
lection of materials for the illustration of the work on North Amer-
ican Oology, in preparation by Dr. Brewer. In the west, the labors
interrupted by the death of the lamented Captain Feilner have been
resumed, under the direction of General Sully, in the neighborhood
of Devil’s lake, Dakota. From Idaho, collections made by Dr. Hitz have
been received, and from Arizona the valuable series collected by As-
sistant Surgeon Coues. The latter consist of mammals, birds, rep-
tiles, insects, and plants. Doctor Coues has also made minute notes
on the habits and peculiarities of the animals of the region explored,
and is now engaged upon a report of the results of his labors.
It has been frequently stated in previous reports that the Institu-
tion has entered into friendly relations with the officers of the Hud-
son’s Bay Company, and, from the active co-operation which has taken
place, large collections of interesting specimens relative to the nat-
ural history of the country, valuable meteorological observations, and
ethnological records have been derived.
In March last the Institution received upwards of thirty large cases
from this source, containing immense numbers of specimens illustra-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61
ting the flora, fauna, and the anthropology of these northern regions.
For the larger portion of these collections we are specially indebted
to Mr. R. R. Macfarlane of Fort Anderson.
The services of Governor Mactavish, in forwarding his own and
other valuable notes which accompany the collections, were also of
ereat importance, and, as in previous cases, the boxes were delivered
by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Garry, after thousands of
miles of transportation, free of charges. °
The opportunity afforded of adding to the collections of the Insti-
tution by the expedition to connect the United States and Russia by
a line of telegraphic communication, was too important to be neg-
lected. The directors of the company engaged in this enterprise
early called upon the Smithsonian Institution for information in re-
gard to the contemplated route, and besides receiving maps and
other data relative to the geography and climate of the country,
Mr. Kennicott, who had spent several years under the auspices of
the Institution in Arctic America, was warmly recommended to them
as a person well qualified to assist in the undertaking. The company
also received valuable suggestions as to the best line from Professor
Baird, and, in return for these services, facilities have been afforded,
under Colonel Bulkley, in charge of the expedition, for making col-
lections in natural history, &c., on a liberal scale. A prominent po-
sition was given to Mr. Kennicott in the survey, and a number of
assistants were selected from young men who had also been in
training in this Institution; the notes and collections which may be
made by them will be transmitted to Washington for discussion and
the publication of such results as may be important in the advance of
science.
The telegraph company not only afforded facilities for making the
collections, but also contributed, as did the Chicago Academy of
Sciences, to lessen the expense to the Smithsonian fund in the pur-
chase of the necessary articles comprising the outfit of the natural.
ists of the expedition. The first set of duplicate specimens will
properly belong to the Chicago Academy, and the remainder will be
distributed in the manner best adapted to facilitate the researches of
those who are engaged in the study of the special branches of science
to which the specimens may pertain.
In the southern part of the continent, explorations have continued
to be made. Colonel A. J. Grayson, who has previously been a
contributor, has examined the islands off the coast of Mexico, and
has discovered a number of new species of birds; also Mr. Charles
62 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Laszlo and Dr. Sartorius, to whom we have been indebted for me-
teorological observations, have continued their contributions to the
natural history of Mexico.
A scientific survey of the Isthmus of Yucatan has been undertaken
by Governor Salazar y Ilarregui, and, on the recommendation of the
Institution, Dr. Arthur Schott was engaged to superintend the nat-
ural history branch of operations; and the collections, of which many
packagés have already reached us, are all to be sent to this Institution
for examination previous to the publication of an account of the re-
sults obtained.
Dr. H. Berendt has commenced, under the auspices of the Insti-
tution, an exploration of British Honduras and the interior of Gua-
temala. The outfit of physical instruments and apparatus, and
supplies, for collections of natural history, were principally furnished
from the Smithsonian fund, while the personal expenses were borne
by a subscription of a number of gentlemen interested in the advance
' of science, and by the Academies of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
and Chicago.
The explorations in Costa Rica by Dr. Von Frantzius and Mr.
Carmiol have continued to add large numbers of specimens to our
collections, no region of America, according to Professor Baird, hav-
ing yielded of late years so many new species of birds.
Valuable collections have been made by Mr. Holland, Captain Dow,
Mr. Hicks, and Mr. Chapman, in Central America.
From South America collections have been received from Mr.
Walter 8. Church and Professor W. E. Nation, in Peru; Dr. Her-
ing, from Paramaribo; Mr. De Lacerda, Mr. Goodwin, and the Natural
History Museum of Rio, in Brazil. For the latter donation, made by
order of the Emperor of Brazil, we are specially indebted to the
kindness of Mr. Lisboa, former Brazilian minister to the United
States.
Large collections have also been received from the West Indies,
principally made by Mr. Charles Wright, Mr. N. H. Bishop, Dr.
Gundlach, Mr. March, Professor G. N. Allen, Mr. Robert Swift, and
Mr. George Latimer, the deficiencies in our series from this region
having been largely supplied during the year.
In accordance with the policy of the Institution, collections are not
generally requested from the Old World, except in certain cases where
they are desired for comparison by those who are engaged in special
investigations. We have, however, during the last year, received a
series of the eggs and skins of the birds of Palestine, presented by
Mr. Tristram.
*REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63
Disiribution and use of Specimens.—The policy of rendering the
specimens as conducive as possible to the immediate promotion of sci-
ence has been constantly observed, and for this purpose not only
have new specimens been furnished to those engaged in original in-
vestigations, but the duplicates of such as have been examined have
been made up into sets for distribution.
From the materials principally furnished by the Institution, Dr.
Gill has prepared a synopsis of North American seals, about to be
published by the Essex Institute of Massachusetts, and has continued
the description of new species of fishes. He has also examined the
skulls of Mammals in the collection, and among them has made the re-
markable discovery of a peculiar generic type of tapirs, still living
on the Isthmus of Panama, but which has escaped the notice of pre-
vious investigators.
Ample materials have also been furnished Professor Baird for the
preparation of an additional part of his review of American birds,
and the means have been furnished Dr. Bryant, Mr. Cassin, and Mr.
Lawrence, for prosecuting their investigations in relation to orni-
thology. A large number of reptiles have been sent to Professor
Cope, of Haverford College, Pennsylvania, including a series from
Arizona and Central America; the new species will be described in
the proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences,
and amore elaborate monograph of the whole is to be presented
for publication to the Institution. Dr. Brewer has been supplied with
eggs and nests of birds, for the continuation of his work on North
American Oology, the first part of which was published in the eley-
enth volume of Smithsonian Contributions.
In all cases where assistance is thus extended to individuals in the
prosecution of their particular studies, there is an implied understand-
ing that full credit shall be given to the Institution for the facilities
afforded. This condition has generally been properly observed, al-
though in some few cases the acknowledgment has not been quite so
explicit as the benefits received would appear to demand.
So extended has become the field of modern science that divi-
sion of labor is here as essential as in the mechanic arts, and a mas-
tery of principles and details can only be the reward of attention con-
centrated on a few branches; as, therefore, the organization of this
Institution does not contemplate the support of a corps of professors
engaged in a comprehensive cultivation of science in all its branches,
but would rather invite the aid and procure the collaboration of
those who may be disposed to render gratuitous service for the fur-
therance and advance of knowledge for its own sake, many of the
64 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY..
specimens which are sent to us for identification, particularly those
of a rare character, are forwarded for examination to persons ata
distance, During the past year the insects received, as usual,
have been placed in charge of the Entomological Society, of Phila-
delphia; the plants have been sent partly to Dr. Torrey, and partly
to Dr. Gray, for study and arrangement. The minerals have been trans-
mitted to the School of Mines of Columbia College,New York. In all
cases the specimens are to be assorted and labelled, the most perfect
suite to be returned to the Institution, and the remainder properly
divided into sets for distribution.
References have also been made during the past year of questions
in the line of natural history to Professor G. J. Brush, Isaac Lea,esq.,
Dr. Jos. Leidy, A. Agassiz, J. P. Lesley, Dr. Haldeman, Dr. Allen,
Thos. Bland, W. G. Binney, G. W. Tryon, jr.. Dr. W.Stimpson, Dr.
J. Le Conte, S. H. Scudder, P. BR. Uhler, W. H. Edwards, Edw.
Norton, E. T. Cresson, and Dr. H. C. Wood, jr.
It is gratifying to be able to state that in no case has a favor of
this kind been refused by any one qualified to render the desired ser-
vice ; indeed the time and labor bestowed on the affairs of the Insti-
tution by its collaborators might well be a matter of surprise to
those who are themselves scarcely influenced by other motives than
the pursuit of gain. In this respect the liberalizing tendency of sci-
entific studies is strikingly manifest.
In the winter of 1859-60 Mr. P. P. Carpenter, a well known con-
chologist, who had been requested by the British Association for the
Advance of Science to prepare a report on the shells of the northwest
coast of America, visited Washington, and was requested to arrange
and label the extensive collection of shells of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, preparatory to the distribution of the duplicates. These con-
sisted of the specimens collected by the United States Exploring
Expedition, under Captain Wilkes, and other expeditions instituted
by government, together with those collected by individuals under
the direction of the Institution:
The work, however, proved far too extensive to be completed by
Mr. Carpenter before his return home,and it was therefore concluded
to send the collection to him in England, where he would have an
opportunity of performing the work under the more favorable con-
dition of comparison with the great collectigns of that country. The
boxes were transported across the Atlantic gratuitously, through the
kindness of Sir E. Cunard, passed through the English custom-house
without search, and arrived safely at the Warrington Museum, of
‘ REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 65
which Mr. Carpenter was at the time one of the scientific cura-
tors.
“Tn one respect,” says Mr. Carpenter, “it was fortunate for the future
interests of American malacology that the work was undertaken at
the time. It was part of the plan to duplicate, for American stu-
dents, names in the celebrated Cumingian collection, the largest in
the world, and containing the principal part of the types described
and figured in the modern monographs. Mr. Cuming himself liber-
ally and kindly undertook to compare the shells of the Institution
with his own. This great and wearisome labor he performed gra-
tuitously, in order that he might give a fair starting point to Ameri-
can students. The only expense was that of transportation and
clerk-hire. Shortly after the completion of the work, Mr. Cuming
died, to the irreparable loss of the students of malacology, to whom
he was always ready to render assistance whenever the interests of
science would be thereby advanced.’’ ‘‘ When the duplicates of the
Smithsonian collection shall have been distributed to the schools, col-
leges, and museums of the American continent, and students not yet
born shall be thereby enabled to make an accurate beginning in this
interesting and useful branch of study, it is hoped that the name of
Hugh Cuming will be remembered with grateful respect, as the man
to whose incessant labors during a long life is due the gathering
together of the largest series of known forms of shells, and to whom
they owe the naming of the principal part of their collection.”’
Mr. Carpenter does not claim for the naming of these specimens
entire freedom from error; the names given represent simply, neither
more nor less, those in Mr. Cuming’s cabinet, as identified by him-
self during the years 1861 to 1865, that is, the names of the more re-
cent monographer, whether right or wrong. It is believed, however,
that there is no other collection of shells on the continent of Amer-
ica of an equal number of species which can lay claim to even this
moderate standard of accuracy.
The several objects to which Mr. Carpenter’s attention was directed
were as follows:
First. To make the permanent collection of the Institution as com-
plete as possible by advantageous exchanges in England and else-
where. ;
Second. To arrange the first-class duplicates of those which had a
special scientific value for distribution to the establishments where
they would be most generally useful.
58
66 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ;
Third. To make up the remaining specimens into series for dis-
tribution to colleges and other educational establishments.
Of the first-class series, the following distribution has been made,
viz: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge; Academy of Sci-
ences, Philadelphia; State Cabinet of Natural History, Albany; Geo-
wgical Survey of Canada, Montreal; Academy of Natural Sciences,
San Francisco. The specimens of these sets, as we have said before,
are of great scientific value for original comparison in the way of
determination of species, since they have been labelled after careful
comparison by Mr. Carpenter and other authorities in conchology.
A very inadequate conception was at first entertained of the amount
of labor which would be required to complete the assorting and la-
belling this part of the Smithsonian collection of natural history. It
was thought that it might be completed in the course of a few
months. Mr. Carpenter has, however, devoted to it about four years
of continued labor. It must be observed at the same time that per-
haps « considerable portion of this period was devoted to a comple-
tion of the series intended to be preserved in the Smithsonian mu-
seum.
The specimens examined by Mr. Carpenter have all been returned
to the Institution, made up into sets, in accordance with the arrange-
ment previously described. The number of these sets and of other
collections of shells for distribution to colleges, academies, &c., is
about 1,000, the whole including about 60,000 species and 250,000
specimens. Of these about one-fourth have been distributed.
According to the statement, of Professor Baird, the whole number
of specimens, including shells which have been distributed, amounts
to upwards of 124,000, of which 19,000 have been presented to va-
rious establishments during the past year.
Museum.——As the public museum of the Institution occupied the
portion of the building constructed of fire-proof materials, it escaped
destruction by the fire; yet the smoke and water to which they were
exposed caused some damage to the specimens, and much labor and
expense were requisite to restore them to their proper appearance.
The museum has continued to be an object of interest to the citi-
zens and visitors of Washington, and should the library of the Insti-
tution be transferred to the Capitol, space will be found in the cases
of the west wing for increasing the number of articles placed upon
exhibition. Among the collections we have a large number of speci-
mens to illustrate ethnology. In addition to those collected by the
Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes, are all those which
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67
have been obtained in the various explorations across the continent;
from the Hudson’s Bay Company; from the region of Nootka sound,
Mexico, Central and South America. We regret that on account of
the additional labor required in the renovation of the museum, and
for want of space, these interesting collections have not yet been fully
arranged and labelled for exhibition.
We may add, in this connexion, that if Congress shall adopt the
proposition now under consideration to take charge of the library,
we shall entertain the hope that it will in due time make provision
for the establishment and care of a museum worthy the government
of the United States, and thus relieve the Smithsonian fund of a bur-
den to which, in strict accordance with what I have always conceived
to be the proper interpretation of the will of the founder, it ought
not to be subjected. |
In the report for 1863 mention is made of the presentation of a
large and remarkable meteorite to this Institution, to which the name
had been assigned in California of the ‘‘ Ainsa’’
knowledgments were duly made to Dr, J. D. Irwin, surgeon United
States army, for his services in behalf of the Institution in procuring
this interesting specimen; but from additional facts which have come
to our knowledge we are induced to add the name of this gentleman
to the specimen, and to label it the ‘‘ Irwin-Ainsa meteorite.”’
For an account of the work done in the museum, a complete list of
donors to the museum and collections since the commencement of the
Institution, I would refer to the annexed statement of Professor Baird.
meteorite. Ac-
Laboratory and experiments.—The conflagration which destroyed
the cabinet of apparatus of physics did not extend to the chemical
laboratory, and consequently the operations connected with the latter
have not been interrupted. The series of experiments which were
mentioned in the last report in relation to the examination of the air
of the Capitol has been continued by Dr. C. M. Wetherill, anda
very elaborate report prepared on the subject to be submitted to the
Secretary of the Interior. This report not only gives the result of the
observations made in the halls of Congress, and the experiments at
this Institution, but also a synopsis of all the authentic facts from the
bibliography of the subject, which it is believed will be considered
of value to those who are practically engaged in those departments
of mechanical construction which require attention to temperature
and ventilation. From the investigations it appears that there is an
abundant supply of fresh air forced into the chambers of the Capitol,
but that in winter this is greatly deficient in the quantity of moisture
68 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
necessary to form a comfortable and salubrious atmosphere. It must
be evident that if in an isolated space in winter we desire to have
air of the same salubrity and temperature as in an open space in
pleasant weather in summer, we must artificially impart to this air
not only the same degree of heat, but also an equal amount of mois-
ture.
In an atmosphere entirely devoid of moisture the human body ex-
hales with great energy from every pore of the skin, and especially
from the lungs, and all the more delicate parts of the mucous membrane.
Such an exhalation of moisture in the ordinary condition of the body
would be far too great to allow of a healthy equilibrium between the
natural excretion and assimilation, and it is witb prevision, derived
from long experience, that the savage anoints his body when exposed
to an atmosphere rendered arid by refrigeration, to prevent excessive
exhalation. The tendency of vapor to exhale from the body diminishes
with the force of vapor already in the surrounding atmosphere, and a
perfect equilibrium can only take place with air entirely saturated, at
a temperature of 98°. Butatthe temperature of zero almost all the
moisture of the atmosphere is condensed, and hence the tendency of the
body in the open air in winter to give off its vapor would be excessive,
were it not for the condensation of the vapor immediately around the
body and retained in the interstices of the clothing. If, however, the
surrounding air, without additional moisture, be heated to 70°, all
obstruction to evaporation is removed, and excessive exhalation is
the consequence. Beside this the equalization of the temperature is
much more perfectly effected in case of air properly supplied with
moisture.
These considerations, we think, are very much neglected in the
processes which are adopted for warming and ventilating in this
country. At least in the public buildings in the city of Washington,
the means of supplying an adequate amount of moisture have not
been provided, or, if provided, are not habitually employed. It is
intended, however, during next winter, to continue the observations
in regard to this matter, and to extend them to the principal public
buildings connected with the government.
It has been mentioned in previous reports that a series of experi-
ments was made in regard to the physical qualities and economical
values of different kinds of illuminating materials for light-house pur-
poses. Unfortunately all the notes of the experiments which had
been made on this subject were destroyed in the fire, and during the
past year the principal portion of time which I could spare from
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69
other duties was devoted to the reproduction and extension of the re-
sults previously obtained.
During the past year I devoted about three weeks, in connexion
with Commodore Powell and Mr. Lederle, of the light-house service,
to investigations in relation to sound as applicable to fog signals,
and obtained results of sufficient practical value to determine with
considerable precision the policy of the Light-house Board in regard
to this branch of aids to navigation.
As usual, various questions have been referred to the Institution by
different departments of the government for solution, and these have
in all cases received proper attention, and such reports have been
made as would suffice to an intelligent decision in regard to them.
The Institution is constantly applied to for the examination and
analysis of specimens of ores. Where such examination requires no
special labor, the information has been gratuitously given; but where
quantitative analysis is desired, and the information is for the ad-
vancement of private interests, a charge is always made suflicient to
repay the actual cost of the investigation.
Exchanges. —The system of international scientific and literary
exchanges has been maintained and extended by the Institution dur-
ing the past year. Seventy-seven large boxes, containing 1,176 par-
cels, were sent to our foreign agents in 1865, and 60 boxes, contain-
ing 5,000 parcels,received from them.
These packages, as in former years, contain the publications of the
Institution, public documents, transactions of societies, and scientific
works, by individuals, besides specimens of natural history. The
cost of this branch of the general operations is very large, and would
indeed far exceed the means of the Institution were it not for the
liberal aid received from various parties interested in the advance of
science. For favors of this kind thanks continue to be due to the Bre-
men, the Hamburg, the Cunard, and the Pacific steamship lines, and
to the Panama Railroad Company; all these have generously transport-
ed the packages of the Institution free of cost. Acknowledgments are
due to the Adams, Harnden, and Wells & Fargo express lines for
the carriage without charge of smaller packages, and of larger ones
at a very reduced rate. To Sir E. Cunard, F. Probst & Co., Oelrichs
& Co., and Kunhardt & Co., of New York, and to Leffman & Gut-
heil, of Vera Cruz, thanks have been tendered for important privi-
leges granted by them or through theirinfluence. Mr. George Hillier,
of New York, and Mr. Samuel Hubbard, of San Francisco, agents of
the Institution in those cities, have continued their valuable services.
It may be proper to state that great care is exercised in the
70 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
instructions which have been given to our agents to transmit nothing
in the boxes to the Institution which is not a donation, all purchases
being excluded on account of the present tariff regulations.
For the statistics of the exchanges see the annexed tables in the
report of Professor Baird.
Library.—The library has received during the past year, through
our system of exchanges, 547 octavo, 201 quarto, and 19 folio vol-
umes, 3,256 pamphlets and parts of volumes, and 183 maps and charts,
making a total of 4,206.
The work on the catalogue of transactions of learned societies and
of scientific journals has advanced so far that all those of foreign
countries have been finished, while those of America are now in the
hands of the printer.
The suggestion has been made in previous reports that consid-
erable relief might be afforded to the Institution by the transfer of
its library, under certain conditions, to the new and spacious halls
which Congress is providing for its own library, and the importance
of the proposition has been much enhanced by considerations con-
nected with the recent disaster. The west wing of the building, in
which the library is now contained, is not fire-proof, and is already
filled to overflowing. To provide another depository for it, which
shall render it entirely secure from fire and be sufficient for its con-
tinued increase, will far exceed the means of the Institution, and,
although some inconvenience would be experienced in regard to
ready access to the books, yet, in consideration of the great value
of the collection, by far the most perfect of its kind in the United
States, it has been thought proper to ask Congress to allow the de-
posit of this library to be made in one of the new fire-proof rooms
preparing for the extension of its own collection of books.
Iam informed by Mr. Spofford, the librarian of Congress, that
these two new rooms will be sufficient to accommodate the Smithson-
ian library and to furnish space for the growth of the Congressional
library for the next fifteen or twenty years. The object of the
transfer is, of course, not to separate this unique and highly prized
collection of books from its relations to the Smithsonian Institution,
for it must still bear its name and be subject to its control, but merely
to deposit it where its preservation will be more certain and its use-
fulness more extended .*
* Since the preparation of this report an act of Congress has been passed authorizing the
deposit of the library in one of the new rooms of the Capitol. This arrangement, while it
secures the safety of the books, will facilitate the researches of the student, since, in the same
suite of apartments, he will have free access to two libraries. (See Proceedings of the Board
in this volume.)
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. (i
‘* Personnel” of the Institution. —In the annual reports for a number
of years past no other account has been given of the personnel of the
Institution than a reference to the principal assistants or a casual
allusion to the others ; but as special inquiry on this point has been
made by some of the new Regents, and as some changes will probably
take place on account of the fire and the transfer of the library, it is
deemed advisable on this occasion to give the official position and the
duty of the several persons connected with the establishment. This
information is perhaps the more necessary in order to prevent mis-
apprehension, and in some cases to protect the public from the
representations of designing persons, who, though never having had
any connexion with the Institution, or only a very temporary or sub-
ordinate one, have assumed to belong to the corps of its officers.
The act of Congress which organized the Institution directed the
appointment of but one executive officer, who, under the name of
the Secretary, should have ‘‘charge of the building and property
of said Institution,’’ be keeper of the museum, and perform the duties
of librarian, thus confiding to him the general direction of affairs,
under the control of the Board of Regents,and investing him with the
sole respousibility for the judicious and the efficient conduct of all
transactions of the Institution within the prescribed conditions. In
order, however, better to enable him properly to discharge the im-
portant and arduous duties devolved upon him, he is allowed, with
the consent of the board, ‘‘ to employ assistants.’’ By the adoption
of such an arrangement it was no doubt intended to secure unity of
action and efficiency of co-operation among all who might be actually
engaged in carrying out the novel and interesting objects of the be-
quest. The importance of this provision of the law was, however,
either not apparent at first or was lost sight of in the early proceed-
ings of the board. The Secretary, instead of being allowed the selec-
tion of assistants upon his own judgment and responsibility, when
permission had once been obtained for making the appointments, was
required to submit his choice to the approval of the Regents, and thus,
in a considerable degree, to abridge his power of control. As might
have been anticipated, this deviation from the original intention of
the act did not succeed in practice; dissensions soon arose as to the
exact apportionment of the income by the Secretary to the several
objects of the programme, in which the superintending parties were
differently interested, as well as in regard to the direction which each
assistant might exercise as head of a department, and maintaining a
separate and independent direction and official correspondence. To
2 - REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
obviate these difficulties, and to determine for himself and his
successors the character of his official position, the Secretary was con-
strained to resort to a rightful exertion of his authority, as plainly ex-
pressed in the law, and, without an appeal to the board, to reorganize
his corps of assistants. The majority of the Regents fully approved
of this course, and, to prevent difficulty in the future, repealed the
regulation relative to the division of the income, adopting at the same
time a resolution offered by the late Judge Douglas, that no official
letter or communication pertaining to ¢he affairs of the Institution
should be written except under the authority and by the direction of
the Secretary. Under this arrangment, which has now been in opera-
tion twelve years, all the affairs of the Institution have been con-
ducted with harmony, and, as I venture to think, with an efficiency
which evinces the wisdom of the provision for securing conformity
of purpose and unity of action.
In the reorganization of the personnel of the establishment, the
Secretary employed as his first assistant Professor Spencer F. Baird,
and as chief clerk William J. Rhees, each of whom receives a perma-
nent salary, affixed by a resolution of the Board of Regents to their
respective offices. Other assistants are employed on such terms as
the Secretary may think just.
It is evident, from the plan of organization, that the duty required
of the assistants is of a clerical rather than a scientific char-
acter, since service of the latter kind, as has been fully shown,
can always be obtained from the collaborators without charge, or
from experts employed for the occasion and paid in proportion to the
time of engagment. Although the terms of the reappointment of Pro-
fessor Baird prescribe that he shall render assistance in any line of
duty in which the Secretary may require his aid, yet on account of
his zeal in the cultivation of natural history, and his skill and expe-
rience in the collection and arrangement of specimens, his labors have
principally been assigned to such objects. He has likewise had
charge of the business of exchanges, and in part also of the print-
ing and correspondence. To Mr. Rhees has been assigned the duty
of superintending the accounts and auditing all the bills of expendi-
tures made by the Secretary and authorized under the general ap-
propriation of the Regents, while he has at the same time acted as
paymaster and assisted in the official correspondence.
Another assistant, Mr. William Q. Force, of this city, who has
been for several years connected with the Institution, has charge
of the meteorological materials which are constantly accumulating,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 73
and of the preparation of the monthly account of the weather for
publication in the bulletins of the Agricultural Department ; one half
of his salary is paid by the Commissioner of Agriculture and the
other half from the Smithson fund.
An assistant is also required to attend to the care of the books in the
library, and another to prepare the catalogue of the transactions of
learned societies now in the press, and to perform the clerical duties
connected with the system of foreign exchange. The former ser-
. vice for the last few years has been rendered by Dr. Theodore Gill,
who, at the same time, has continued his investigations in regard to
zoology. The latter duty has been performed by Miss Jane Turner,
the sister of the lamented Professor Turner, whose name occurs so
frequently in the previous reports of the Institution.
As one of the maxims to be observed in the policy of the Institu-
tion, but few persons are to be permanently supported by its funds.
This maxim has been strictly observed in regard to the principal as-
sistants, butit must be evident that, in the case of so large a building
and its contents, and so many and various operations to be attended
to, a number of employés will be constantly required. The con-
nexion of these, however, with the Institution is considered of
a temporary character, their numbers being increased or diminished
as circumstances may indicate. Of this class the following is an
enumeration of. those employed before the fire. The number has
since been reduced:
1. A janitor, who resides in the building, on the grounds, gives
information to visitors, acts as messenger, and has a general care of
the property at all times. 2. A curator of the museum, who keeps
the specimens in a proper condition for exhibition, performs the work
of a taxidermist in setting up specimens of birds, mammals, and
other animals. 3. A machinist, who assists in preparing experi-
ments for the illustration of lectures or for original research, who
has charge of the apparatus, the gas and water pipes, the furnaces,
and the repairs of the metal parts of the building. 4. A carpen-
ter, to make cases, trays, packing boxes, furniture, and to attend to
the repairs constantly required for the building. It has been found
from experience that the salaries of the last two employés are much
less than the annual cost of repairs of carpentry and metal work by
the employment of outside parties. 5. Night watchmen. Previous
to the fire but one of these was employed, but it was found that
the service was too much for the health of an ordinary individual,
and consequently it has been necessary to employ another, the whole .
74 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
twenty-four hours being nearly divided between them. 6. Laborers,
daily required for cleaning the building after the hours in which it is
open to the public, attending to fires, &c.
Besides the assistants who receive a salary, a large amount of Jabor
has been given the Institution, without pay, by persons interested in
the study of natural history, or who have been engaged in explora-
tions and make use of the facilities afforded by the library-and col-
lections in preparing their reports. To most of these, rooms, warmed
and lighted, have been assigned in the building, and lodging apart-
ments in the towers. Among these we may mention the names of
Mr. F. B. Meek, Dr. W. Stimpson, Dr. Gill, Mr. R. Kennicott, Dr.
EK. Coues, Dr. H. Allen, Dr. E. D. Cope, and Mr. A. D. Brown.
The laboratory has been under the care, for the last few years, of
Dr. B. F. Craig, now of the medical department of the army, and
also of Dr. Wetherill, just appointed Professor of Chemistry in the
new college at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The remuneration they
received was either from the government or from private parties, on
account of researches principally of an economical character.
For the purpose of conducting the foreign exchanges, it has been
found necessary to have agents in such central positions as may en-
able us to distribute the books and specimens most effectually to
various parts of the world, and to collect the returns intended for
this country. The following are the agents at present employed :
Dr. Felix Flugel, Leipsic; Gustave Bossange, Paris ; William Wes-
ley, London ; Fred. Muller, Amsterdam.
The collaborators, to whom references have so frequently been
made, include all the prominent cultivators of original science in this
country. They have all,with scarcely an exception, rendered assist-
ance in supporting, directing, and advancing the Institution. Its op-
ponents have been mainly those who have been misinformed as to its
character and labors, or have been disappointed in the desire to ad-
vance personal interests through its means.
Respectfully submitted.
JOSEPH HENRY,
Secretary Smithsonian L{nstitulion.
JANUARY, 1866.
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY, SPENCER F. BAIRD, RELATIVE TO EXCHANGES,
COLLECTIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY, &c.
During the past year 678 principal packages of various kinds—boxes, bales,
or bundles—were received at the Institution, and 508 sent out from it by the
different express, railroad, or steamship lines.
The figures given above, however, do not represent the entire number of par-
cels received by the Institution, or made up and transmitted by it, since, as will
be seen by the subsequent tables, seventy-seven alone of the parcels sent out
were boxes for our agents of exchange, containing 1,176 parcels, thus increasing
the preceding enumeration by 1,100. Again, of the packages received 60 were
boxes from Europe, containing at least 5,000 parcels, making a total of at least
5,600 received, and of about 1,600 transmitted.
As usual, the principal statistics connected with the exchanges of the Institu-
tion will be given in a series of tables, marked, respectively, A, B, C, and D.
AG
Receipts of books, &c., by exchange, in 1865.
“WS Trp Pa die Sa Yet Re Ri LRM Rs 2 BRR A a a 547
UF sE rape ect fas hes SE sors) 5 j=: ui a |, See els SUN 201
OU iags esis ny sp ree/ ey sia) oo b = ae ole BN ook bee 19
— 767
Parts of volumes and pamphlets :
CEOS Ces Ahan Gee ae So ene aie eas 2, 070
Quarto teers ooo Lees LS ote Ok 979
JTC) See ee Oh Oe ee Se cA ay eee eee 207
Bes
Mens ancl eharts-2--- ss. cs 2%. DOES E 2 0 - Cis CER ae aime ar 183
AG | LE ee a 4 206
As the corresponding receipts in 1864 amounted to 3,686, it will be seen that
1865 exhibits an increase of over 500 volumes and parts of volumes, thus indi-
cating that this source of supply to the library of the Institution exhibits no
symptom of diminution.
«d 47S \Ri TO TSE EAE GF IEE SECRETE.
Ez
=.
Tank samme Ge sus FO lame a Se Smeeeomee Tae
we ISS
= =
— — =
= = = =
= = — ==
— - ==
= = == —— ss
=. = =F ==
==> => —_=
==> —_— = — iw
= = ==
— ——
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6 —— ee
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oz eae ee Se
a — — =e 7 |e eee ES ee
EEE = 7 Sew eee eee
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fee SS eS Se = > $e eee
eee ee = a fs BS
IN ——E—E————EE = P= ee SS SS
f
Aaah pura werent te tie Setioocun beens fro pois
Americ JE Fare Ca A.
==
Saeme Seafeses af Soc andl Seaemess_-.----------------- 421
Seed af Soe Cees _____________ ae oe eee i
Bese Seeasy of Nard Eostery ----------_ -_-----_--------. 2S 2S
APPENDIX TO THE EBEPORT OF THE SECBETSEY.
Cambrider, Mazs—
Museum of Comparative Zoology --------------------------
Nautical Almanac-.--------------------------------------
Nee Hares, Comz—
New Yori, N. Y—
New York Lyceum of Natare] Hiztery---....-----~-----------
ie
wy
Philadephia, Pa— :
Academy of Natural Seiemess -------.-----+----------------
American Philosophical Society - -----.--------------------
Historical Society of Penmsylvanis-------------------------
Portland. Meme—
Sea Francis, Cal—
California Academy of Natures] Setemees------~-~-.-----------
78
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Dp:
Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution from Europe, for
distribution in America, in 1865.
ALBANY, NEW YORK,
Albany Institute
Dudley Observatory
New York State Agricultural Society.
University of the State of New York.
State Library
State Medical Society.----.--------
lava mdlebill Resse hoaeo dae hoaaeee
Franklin B. Hough
Colonelieweltsemeaaeeaee esa = eon
eee eee ee ee ee eee wee
AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS.
Amherst College
Prof. C. U. Shepard
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN,
Observatory
University of Michigan
Dr. Brunnow
Dr. J. C. Watson
Prof. A. Winchell
wee eee eee eee
eee ee ee eee eee oe eee
ATHENS, OHIO.
OhionWniviersiiveressestecse- -~ ==
AUBURN, NEW YORK,
New York State Lunatic Asylum...
AUGUSTA, MAINE.
State Lunatic Hospital...---...---.
AUSTIN, TEXAS.
angtic Asylum: <2 ee ees o. -
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
Maryland Histcrical Society -.-.....
Maryland Hospital for Insane-.----.
Mount Hope Institution
Drs onniGs= Morris -2- ease.
Dr. A. Paetsch
BLACKWELL’S ISLAND, NEW YORK.
New York City Lunatic Asylum....
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA.
Indiana State University .......-.--
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
American Academy of Arts and Sci-
NCES 2 hee See ee
American Statistical Association. ....
m |i f
i 2 tj O
S ep || = &p
Sh) I x
BOSTON, MASS.—Continued.
Shull Letocnal We Alennrouilnrnte) 2-542 s454 6.2 1
14 || Boston Lunatic Hospital -..---..-.-- 2
24 || Boston Society of Natural History... 3D
Qa ebowdiiehyiaibrany eee 3
31 || Geological Survey of Massachusetts- 2
2 || Historical Society of Massachusetts - Z
7 || New England Historico-Genealogical
1 NOCIELY: s22 oe see ee ae ae ee 2
1 || North American Review-..----------- 4
| Prison Discipline Society. -----..--- 2
PoeablieWoibraty - 22 ss) ese eee 18
Tey y|| ceed es ae soe aes 14
|| Lees aR eR ORE Aaa Me ecc lose 2 1
Alvan! Clarke. o5.2esseeesee eee 1
Driohn- Deans... <s-csecn aac i
evince Seivierelitr orate ohayt(s eee i
Dp prot J.D). Bverettco- 22... aeons 2
I>$Colonelif. DiGraham-- 22> 222 1
1S Das AV Gouldeases see eee 1
Bi WAGBACUELAV OS acces comme eee cee 1
1s Sohnve Motleycys sae ee 9
TPO W/o lee LGR céscosSoced see! 1
lisekorscaddersoe-stcee we oeeee cee. 4
1
BRATTLEBORO’, VERMONT.
: || State Lunatic Asylum.-....-..----- 2
BRUNSWICK, MAINE.
OA Pbowdon Colleve- 2 sass see eeeeeae 9
Historical Society of Maine --..---- 2
1 BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY.
Wel Dinney~scsscser= a= ee ene 1
4 BURLINGTON, VERMONT.
2
Lip University: of (Vermont: =~ 2=-. --oss- 2
3
ie CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.
American Association for Advance-
MIOLtIOLIS CENCE pea eee 29
2 | American Ephemeris and Nautical
INGOs Soe sec sce se 565050" 2
Astronomical Journal .------...---- 1
iHanyanrd Colleges ssssmeee== = = 23
1 | Museum of Comparative Zoology ---- 4
National Academy of Sciences ..-.--. 10
| Observatory of Harvard College .--- 26
| Perkins’s Institution for Blind..----. 1
JNIGSES ANODE See 5555 ssa soc sass 1
TO); || rot iy AGaASSiZ(-~—-— =~ - = eee 42
*3|"ProfG. be Bold secc cece eeeeeeere 1
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
79
D.—Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution, §c—Cont’d.
————
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Continued.
SLOP AS 2n OMB, spate oe oes we nein
G. W. Hill
T. Lyman
Avs (ONG tii eRe Bae esos ceee a aeeeeers
J EFRON aI Bho | BXe hn cle yee my ee A ee ae
T. H. Safford
eee VWVOLCESTON i cee nce ccccin sce tene
ETO Witithts oases. se ee eee ce
HNO VIMAD ees ese cisesieoee ce oe
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA.
University of North Carolina
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
Chicago Academy of Sciences...--..
Mechanics Institute
CINCINNATI, OHIO,
Cincinnati Lancet
Dental Register of the West
Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio
Mercantile Library
Observator
CLINTON, NEW YORK.
Observatory of Hamilton College...
Dre blew BOR CLS so1eitainie ses ss
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA.
State Lunatic Asylum....-.-...---.
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI.
Geological Survey of Missouri
State Library
Winliversiiveemecise nce oc a cccaece ac see
COLUMBUS, OHIO.
Wennatie “Aisylmmpepeny so sa cisa ce 2:
Ohio State Board of Agriculture. -..-.
Meo Lesqueresux sees. 4. ee csc <c
W.S. Sullivant
weet ewe wee ew wwe
No. of
packages.
pet be SEO CO TD 0D SP
| Michigan State Agricultural Society -
C1 Or
No. of
packages.
|
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
_ New Hampshire Historical Society --
State Lunatic Asylum...-...-......
DAYTON, OHIO.
Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum
DELAWARE, OHIO.
Ohio Wesleyan University
DES MOINES, IOWA.
State Library
DETROIT, MICHIGAN,
DORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.
GB 1) Dil: nag pala eae A ea oy
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
OF ACSBIOWEEONE S15. s eSe
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.
Revena@imsteaden ease eree nee
FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS.
Niels sAumiseripsts 2 oy352)2(22) 5 Be ee Sak
FLATBUSH, LONG ISLAND, N. Y.
Kings County Lunatic Asylum .....
FRANKFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.
Friends’ Asylum for Insane.........
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY.
Geological Survey of Kentucky. .--.
FULTON, MISSOURI.
Dunaiierasylamess sce s2ss-<conses
GAMBIER, OHIO.
Kenyon College
IPind, Jal, Jby Symneeaeesosaceaouse.
GEORGETOWN, D. C.
vw
21
10
mal bol (>
80 APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
D.— Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution, §¢—Cont’d.
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
De; Thiews. 2-5 22-2
GREENCASTLE, INDIANA.
Indiana Ashbury University --...---
HAMDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.
Rev. C. W. Everesies 2 oe ee |
HAMILTON, NEW YORK.
Madison University...-...--.-...-
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Dartmouth College ..-..----.-----
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLNANIA.
State Lunatic Hospital.--.-.-....-
Side Sabrary =---=- = =
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.
Historical Society of Connecticut---
aetreat for Insane ..-.....----==--
Mamiy Acellese--o cape. o5- 5-5 -
Young Men’s faestiiipee) 2.2...
Hon. EL Sarmardhs ess. 2 22 2s
HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY.
Western Lunatic Asylum....--...-.
HUDSON, OHIO.
Western Reserve College--.---..--
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.
Indiana Historical Society....-..--
Indiana Hospital for Insane ---. ---
Prof. Karkwood. 2.--- .---2---2--
INMANSVILLE, WISCONSIN.
Scandinavian Society --.--..--.-..
IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Iowa State University...-..-.....-
705, HInUCnS soe ieee eee ino
IRVINGTON, NEW YORK.
Clarence King .....-. ees
No. of
packages.
10
bet HD
a an)
ee ee
_
He Hee
1
|
S
| 64
cae
JACKSON, LOUISIANA.
Insane Asylum. ..5-,.252-2/2425-22¢ 1
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.
State Lunatic Asylum.....-.....--- 1
JACKSONVILLE, ILLINOIS.
Illinois State Lunatic Hospital-...-. :
JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.
State Institution for the Blind...... 4
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN.
Michigan Hospital for Insane-..-.-. 1
LANSING, MICHIGAN.
| State Agricultural College.-----.--. 1
LEBANON, TENNESSEE.
| Cumberland University -.......-..- 1
LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
ijniversity ..---<2.22222-2--5-5- =e 1
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY.
Eastern Lunatic Asylum....-...---- 2
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.
Historical Society of Kentucky -.--- 2
Wniversity -=-.- 2222-52552 eee 6
Sods. Smith 2 ee ee 3
LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.
Miss Maria Mitchell..........-.-.-- 2
MADISON, WISCONSIN.
Historical Society of Wisconsin. -... 4
| Observatory. 2-225 222222 -2-e3 oe I
Skandinaviske Presseforening -----.- i
State Labrary.-.2- eee ee | 5
kintvewiy —-2---ae eee I
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society 12
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT.
Wesleyan University .......-...--- 1
MILL CREEK, OHIO.
innatic Acylnm.....-..-.2-=-0 see 1
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
81
D.— Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution, §e.—Continued.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA.
State Lunatic Asylum.......---..--
MILLTOWN, MAINE.
George A. Boardman
MONTPELIER, VERMONT.
MIbALO en Dray ce sistas ieee pee oc
MONTREAL, CANADA.
Natural History Society......------
MOUNT PLEASANT, IOWA.
Iowa Wesleyan University
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
State Lunatie Asylum........------
University
ee ee ee
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY.
Geological Survey of New Jersey .---
NEWBURG, OHIO.
rmnaicrasyloMecsece sls ace seine atl
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.
American Journal of Science and Arts
American Oriental Society.----.----
Yale College
Frank H. Bradley
EB. J. Chapman= 2-2 ---ss)90----c---
rotesson de> Dandsscses cece cose
Professor E. Loomis
Professor O. C. Marshi==22- 22222...
Professor H. A. Newton..-.........
Professor B. Silliman
Professor Twinin
Professor W. D. Whitney
NEW OXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.
(reepeteniers..=52 565552 ccna dee
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.
New Orleans Academy of Sciences --
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
‘United States Naval Academy .....-
6s
9
bt 0D
NEW YORK, NEW YORK.
American Ethnological Society...---
American Geographical and Statistical
SOCiety> ~ = 251s = ose eeee cece
American Missionary Society .-.- ----
Astor Library
Bloomingdale Asylum..--...-..----
Columbia College
Historical Society
Mercantile Library Association.--.--
New York Academy of Medicine -...-
New York Journal of Medicine
New York Lyceum of Natural History
University of the City of New York..
Professor Chandler
1Wsiy Do Vivo IWEB SRG SSE 66 Goce cootee
BrotessomL. Maleston:...scoco-it =
General J. C. Frémont-..--........-
H. Grinnell
Mr. Harlan
G. N. Lawrence .
C. F. Loosey, (consul general, Aus-
tria)
Colonel C. B. Norton
Edward Norton
Baron Ostensacken, (consul general,
Russia)
Memplepenimesqasacieie= imma sotelel
BiGaSquietesscce pane 1s---1-ocieeee
Se
ee ee
ee ee ee ee eee tee ewe ee eee
i ee ee ei
eee eee eee eee ee eee
ewe ee we ee eee eee wees wees cee
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
| State Lunatic J Athlbnnlee ppoose Cobol:
B. 8. Lyman
ASS ID, \uillvliieyGaneco cence ac oc5acee
NORWICH, VERMONT.
Norwich University ......----0-----
OSWEGO, NEW YORK,
Raphael Pumpelly......-...-.------
OXFORD, OHIO.
Miami University ------.-..--.--..
PEORIA, ILLINOIS.
Dr. Fs Brendel .........-n0. ve~<0%
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
Academy of Natural Sciences. .-.----
| American Pharmaceutical Society -. -
American Philosophical Society. ...-
of
packages.
No.
ca |
mm 0
—
oS
TX CD bet et DO et OO
-
~
C9 0 LOD fe OU
mt Oe
(SUR oS)
cw]
82
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
D.— Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution, §c.—Continued.
PHILADELPHIA, PENN.—Continued.
Central High School
Central High School Observatory. -.-
Mental (Cosmosieas- eee eee ee
Entomological Society of Philadelphia
Franklin Institute
Girard College
Historical Society of Pennsylvania...
Library Compan
Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind-
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society -
Penn’s Hospital
State Lunatic Hospital
C. Carey
John Cassin
E. D. Cope
E. T. Cresson
i es
ee ee
Dr. Isaac Hays
Dr. Isaac Lea
Dr. John Le Conte
Professor J. Leidy
Professor J. P. Lesley
B.S. Lyman
B. V. Marsh
Dr. J. Aitken Meigs
Professor Morioneeees-ee-=5- +e
Franklin Peale
Dr. W. Sharswood
GeormeaWeeiry ons tneee seco ea
Professor Wagner
PINE LAKE, WISCONSIN.
Scandinavian Society
PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
Western Pennsylvania Hospital for
Insane
PORTLAND, MAINE.
Society of Natural History
Neal Dow
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY.
Colleseot New Jerseyea=4-- -soctee
IProtessoreAlexanGemeencc so cen. o ose
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.
BrownWniversitye-seeseeeee elses ee
Butler Hospital for Insane
Rhode Island Historical Society
Professor Caswell
of
packages.
No.
wo
—
—
RE Pe OUR CORE UH SIH NUWNU HEH Oe Oew RY
ae = ee ee =—
ret CH bet CD DO
ay
COW k= OD
|
|
|
|
|
|
| University of Rochester
| Professor Dewey
| Mr. Trask
| St. Louis Academy of Sciences
QUEBEC, CANADA.
eee wee ce ee ee eee ees weer
Observatory
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA.
Insane Asylani-s.5 reese eet ek
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.
Pe We Holzer. 2 Seen oe ee eee
Dr. Ward.) oc. .2 soseree ene eae
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.
Essex Institute
A. S. Packard
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.
| California Academy of Natural Sci-
CNCOS Tos Jao: @ mee ae ie ae eee
Geological Survey
W. P. Blake
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.
| Deutscher Institut fir Befordering
von Wissenschaften
St. Louis University 230-1. oes
J. G. Bernays
Dr. G. Engelmann
Dr. Adam Hammer
Ne Olmessa2o. 8. bocce ee ee
| Mr. Schuster
ww
McLean Asylum
| Western Lunatic Asylum
SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.
Professor Hs) OM ssosao ae oes
STAUNTON, VIRGINIA.
STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA.
California State Lunatic Asylum ....
TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
|| Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital.
No. of
packages.
oe wa
ae
S
bok eed pe et ed CD CO DD DD
—
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY,
83
D.— Addressed packages received by the Smithsonian Institution, §c.—Continued.
i eo]
S &
8
ors
Ag
sz {
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. WASHINGTON, D. C.—Continued.
New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum. -- 2S Bebb: ions 2veh gepoeee aeons 8
Admiral) CH. Davis=s.seeaseeee se
TORONTO, CANADA. General W..H.. Emory, = -S3ees 5-2
1 NPM ONCUSOM: so ccc. 2240 eee
Canadian Institutes 22 22222265657 4) || GeoxoerGubbs' =. ..-.02 + sees
Rev. Charles J. S. Bethune .... .... 4) | Bro fans Galle. 3.0...) 24 toe
Capi ee ve Gulliss, U.S. Nesseeeee-
URBANA, OHIO. Mis exGilliste aS 25.5 nba ei stiev ees
IDs 193 We ebh et eee meeoisees
Wrbana University 325052.).255.% To | PRB is cis on )2.5 ais, Canela
od bis: 18h et) 0 Sees Be oe meee
UTICA, NEW YORK. Jp Onn Gapnenne typ =) - onic 'aainm Klee
Professors Ne vyiCOMM 5 — ae. a-2 = =) ome
wtate Lunatic Asylum-...-..--.....- 2: | iD rmbetermbanken = eee ss eiebemec
Mirachoolerattve-ocesece occas
VANDALIA, ILLINOIS, @hanlesvAes Schott cp. ssi <0- 3's) =0)~ <1
IDES iy. Wwe eoseoscad tebSrces
. Historical Society of Illinois --...... Ie)
WATERVILLE, MAINE.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
lp WiatervallesCollepecs << 2-2-2 saan
Army Medical Museum...-.-..-.--. 4 |
Bureau of Ordnance and Hydro- WEST POINT, NEW YORK.
graphy ..----------------------- 1) ,
Department of Agriculture...-...-... 29 || U.S. Military Academy... -.-. Mb ays
PMieneenpburen tees ea eae see eae a I |) Captain Jos Chase. 2-3. - >. <1.
German Relief Association.......-.-. 28 |
Government Hospital for Insane- --..-. 2 | WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA.
iibrary0n CONOTesS= 2-5 ss eee ain 5
National Observatory --..---..----- 98 | Eastern Lunatic Asylum. ..--..---.
Secretary. of Watiesie6 224.0568 552 1
Statistical Burea—..- 2-5-2 —-<.2 ee it WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.
Surgeon General’s Office ....-..---- OS |
United States Coast Survey..--..--- 36 || American Antiquarian Society .-----.
United States Patent Office ---...--- 128 | Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital
Wir Mepartment 22223. S252. = 55. 3 |
IBroteA\ DS Bache.<.ss eee ace! 29 ZELIENOPLE, PENNSYLVANIA.
Levys (soul Sel seh Beans Heo aS oars 12
Gens da Grbamard -aeseaanwee eae se B | GaCploligeyccasatsescicseiictsonreice |
Motalvofaddressesweooecas sakes. oss sare aa eicic aie wcs'ain 345
Latal: of parcelsh esses ans sces.0ns coe asain Beaches Sauls’ ale'aie 2, 368
No. of
packages.
SD tet OU et bet BD et DD et be ODD et DD
a
wo @
84 APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Additions to the collections of the Institution.
The total number of different donations in the year has amounted to one
hundred and fifty-five, contained in two hundred and fifty-seven packages.
This number is not equal to that of some previous years, as shown by the fol-
lowing tables; but the character of the collections received is in no way in-
ferior, and embraces much new and unworked material.
Table showing the number of donations to the collections since 1859.
Received in 1859, ‘of ditterent donations, ...:..-.-.....---- Sf Ms Sad ee 302
03 1860, Gy) GRAMMES Ss 0h: es Sn Teena eene AGP otk har eee 404
L 1861, 7704 OR AIT MESS my th ee Tr De Cae ED 1SS7/
a 1862, Cee TL Ba eetatet ay cnata Rape atop oe rete ees eae 124
ce 1863, Fn PUG Pioustnicns ‘des yevel cueucutclereee a ae eeenetennte tats 241
< 1864, nm Be Nee nes Se Se a ee IAL
ce 1865, CE ae MUA eturys cos ey A RO eee 155
The table of receipts for the year, however, by no means expresses the re-
sources in this respect of the Institution.
In addition to the mechanical work of cleaning the specimens which were
exposed during the fire, and in restoring labels, &c., considerable progress has
been made in the identification and systematic arrangement of the specimens.
All the collections received have been unpacked, and proper labels of locality
and other items of personal history affixed, the different specimens placed where
they belonged, and those that would not admit of being immediately put in
hand for investigation, were boxed, labelled, entered in the record-book, and
stored where they will be readily accessible when wanted.
Much of the labor done in connection with the specimens received during the
year, and to a less extent with those previously in the collections, has consisted
in the writing labels for the same, and entering them with corresponding numbers
in the record books of the Institution. The following tables will show what
has been done in this respect, and a reproduction of a similar table from last
year’s report will show what additions have been made. In further illustration
of the progress made in this work, I add also the records of two or three year’s
interval since the commencement of the collections of the Institution.
Table showing the entries in the record-books of the Smithsonian collections in
1864 and 1865, as well as various preceding intervals.
: \
1851. 1855. | 1858. | 1860. 1862. 1865.
felis A RR, ean re | a es Se
Skeletons and skulls. .-..- 912 | 2,050) 35413) 4,350 | “4,750 6, 609
Manundlo genes cs 2 cee 1,200 | 3,2261 4,575 | 5,900 | 8) 416
Binds. sees cele 3,700; 4,425 | 11,390 | 20,875 | 26, 157 40,554
Reptiles tacamcdasace ons soe| See scien ere 4,370 | 4,683] 6,311 6,544
BUSHES= cere a oa eees|sses oe celescaweme 1,136 | 2,975 | 4,925 5, 588
i Mog Ot bItdSsomeseees ees comer. =a seeeeee 1,032 | 4,425 | 6,000 9, 939
@rustaceonss, see wee cia=!| wesc ais oe sarees 939 Dey || is tsy 1, 287
Molllsks)- ooaccieseerintcices<|||s st occ. lecce tees Reeereeiee 8, 852 | 10. 090 18, 103
FRadigtes\c =. s<tcseteeay een iisee oeceit (bons oaee Meee 1,308 | 2,675 PAs)
WNOSBII SE ciseascistsise ree orl|laiciaiens\e ic |iee eo Seen Renee 705 | 2, 100 5, 907
Minerals accec cee oreetael|sc se (S225, cee eens Tas 25| 33,420 4,940
Ethnolopical specimens==-|-.-.....|.-.- -s2decee==e- 590 825 1, 125
Annelids so 55 5h - sesso sel bacctee os |lacn.soe ce | eee peso eee 109 110
Totals’ Ss s5s.cescee 4,612 | 7,675 eine 55, 389 | 74, 764 sarees 111, 847
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 85
From the preceding tables it will be seen that the average entries per year,
for fifteen years, have been about 7,450, and that those for 1865 amounted to
15,925, the difference between the summations for 1865 and 1864. ‘This, how-
ever, includes about 7,600 entries of shells made during several years past by
Mr. Carpenter, and only reported in 1865.
As repeatedly explained in previous reports, it is only in ease of the osteo-
logical specimens, the mammals, and the birds, that each entry necessarily re-
lates to but one specimen. In the other departments all of the same kind,
from one locality, and collected at one time from the same donor, may have
but a single entry number, although this number should be affixed to all the
specimens. ‘The average of specimens to each entry cannot be determined ac-
curately, but it is probable that five will not be too high, thus giving as the
total number of specimens catalogued over half a million.
The following tables present an enumeration, somewhat approximate indeed
in some cases, of the specimens of different kinds, as well as the names and ad-
dresses of the parties receiving them, whether public or private. Many of the
latter have made contributions of greater or less value to the Institution, which
were then reciprocated ; and some required the specimens for scientific investi-
gation. From very few of the institutions, however, has anything been ever
received, nor is any expected.
Approximate table of distribution of duplicate specimens by the Smithsonian
Institution from the beginning to the end of—
w a a a
A | a =
vo . Oo oO oO
& RS a 5 5
i) (>) >) 2 2)
o oO o co) o
ey 2 a, a Dy
wa SD) RQ oD wa
Osteolozy---. =-- 3 Boceee secon si 64 64
Mammtlsitsce sete : 770 1,543
BindS\s sss Sse mE 1, 4970))" Me 530
Beptiles.2.2/./-1.-5- 1,631 Oy aye)
IBISHEeS esse ten se ee G4Se an O4O) yt 2 2 ies ee 5 2, 393 5, 149
Eges of birds. --..| 2,279 3, 603 9, 162
whelispeccos ssceee 11, 832 18,212 | 59, 663
Radiates..-. -,---: Dee, |aaocce| Soa eaee eee nee ccce ates 551 727
Crustaceans .... -- OSG ad eOda|| 725) =) ROD IH meee ee ate 1,013 2,516
Other invertebrates. 528 Q é 1, 800 5, 060
1 ACN ys Semete Seen toe © crseics| ey Seen ane eRe fo) || LOSO00) | 12; 975
BOssusse os ss <5 747 OS Ws 2.0152 | se eee p : 2,971 Pa ay'
Minerals and rocks. 211 : 1S | 5, 504
WLHMOLOSyeimete a= [eee eel eae toe ees S81 A SSM! cee eee 58 58
Deiavaa be : ( 20, 4: r 5 51, 884 | 124,149
36 LIST OF DONATIONS.
LIST OF DONATIONS MADE TO THE COLLECTIONS OF 'FHE SMITHSONIAN INSTI-
TUTION IN 1865.
Abbot, G. J—Indian relics, minerals, &e.; various localities.
Adamson, J. C—Noddy tern, and other specimens in aleohol, from the At-
lantic ocean.
Allen, Prof. Geo. N—Collection of birds of Jamaica.
Armstrong, M. K.—Grasshoppers, Dakota.
Arnold, Jas. G.—Shells and marine animals, Bermuda.
Ash, H. C—Fossil fish from Dakota.
Baird, S. F.—Skin of Buteo pennsylvanicus, Maine.
Bishop, N. H.—Collection of birds from Cuba.
Blackburn, Chas. and Geo.—Kgegs of birds from Iowa.
Boardman, G. A.—Skins and eggs of birds.
Botteri, Sig. M.—Plants and shells of Orizaba.
Boston Society of Natural History.—Skins of hares from Massachusetts.
Brass, W.—Zodlogical collections from the Mackenzie River district, Hudson
Bay Territory.
Brooks, O. N—Skins and eggs of roseate tern from Connecticut.
Bulkley, Col. Chas. §., (Director Russian overland international telegraph
expedition.)—Zodlogical and botanical collections made by Robert Kennicott
and assistants in Nicaragua and California.
Butterfield, W. W.—Nest of bird, Indiana.
Carmiol, J—Collection of mammals and birds of Costa Rica.
Cassin, J—Cryolite, Greenland.
Chapman, W. G.—Twelve jars reptiles, U. S. of Colombia.
Christie, W. J—Skin of black rabbit, Fort Edmonston.
Church, W. S.—Collection of birds of Peru.
Copeman, A. J—Mounted slides for microscope containing infusoria.
Coues, U. S. A., Dr. Elliott.—Collection of vertebrata from Arizona.
Crocker, Allan —Skius and eggs of birds of Kansas.
Dayton, E. A—Collection of marls from Virginia.
Dow, Captain J. M.—Birds and marine invertebrates, west coast of Central
America.
Edmonds, J. H.—Clay stones and concretions, Vermont.
Edwards, Amory—Seven skins of birds of Honduras.
Eichwald, Dr. Ed—Plambago collected by M. Siderow from the Lower
Tungouski, Siberia.
Elliot, D. G—Mounted specimens of Penelopinae.
Evans, Gov. J—Jaw of Titanotherium, Colorado.
Feilner, Captain John.—Skins of birds, mammals, &c., collected during Gen-
eral Sully’s expedition on Upper Missouri.
Flett, Jas —Zodlogical collections from the Mackenzie River district.
Frantzius, Dr. A. von —Collection of birds of Costa Rica.
Goss, B. F.—Nests and eggs of birds of Kansas.
Gaudet, C. P.——Zodlogical collections from the Mackenzie River district.
Gibbs, Georg _—Infusorial earths from Nevada Territory.
Goodwin, Mr-—Skins of birds of Brazil.
Grayson, Colonel A. J—Collection of birds from Mazatlan, Tres eee and
Socorro, Mexico.
Gundlach, Dr—Mounted birds and eggs from Cuba.
Gunn, Donald.—Zodlogical collections from the vicinity of Red River settle-
ment.
Hamlin, Prof. C. E.— Vireo philadelphicus, Waterville, Me.
Hayden, Dr. F. V.--Indian dresses, &e., Upper Missouri.
LIST OF DONATIONS. 87
Hays, Dr. W. W.—Collection of birds, &c., from Southern California.
Hepburn, J—Skins and eggs of birds from Pacific coast.
Hering, Dr.—Alcoholic vertebrates, Surinam.
Hicks, Fred.—Collection of birds from Panama, Chiriqui, &c.
Hii, Richard.—Specimens of bats, Jamaica.
Hitz, Dr. R. B.—Collection of birds, eggs, reptiles, &c., principally from Fort
Laramie and Laramie Peak.
Holland, H. E.—Skins of birds of Nicaragua.
Hubbard, Samuel —Collection of California fishes.
Jones, R. Strachan.—Zodlogical collections from Yukon river.
Kennicott R.—See Bulkley.
Lacerda. A. D—Collection of birds from Brazil.
Laszlo, Chas.—Living Dasyproeta and, collection of vertebrata in alcohol,
Mexico.
Latimer, Geo—Collection of birds of Porto Rico.
Lea, Isaac—Collection of minerals, Chester county, Penna.
Lewis, Geo. T—Cryolite from Greenland.
Lincoln, C. D—Four skins Parus atricapillus, Massachusetts.
Lockhart, Jas —Zoiblogical collection from Yukon river and Great Slave lake.
McCauley Jno—Skin of Neotoma drummondi, Fort Edmonston.
Macfarland, R. R.—Twenty boxes zodlogical collections, from Fort Ander-
son and vicinity, Mackenzie River district.
Mactavish, Gov. Paice peerons insects and other specimens from Arctic
America.
Mapes, H. H—Insects, Sh, in alcohol, Michigan.
March, W. T.—Skins, este, and eggs of birds, shells, &c., Jamaica.
Merritt, H.—Indian relics, New York.
Middleton, E. J—Collection of birds of the District of Columbia,
Moore, Carlton R.—Specimen of continental money.
Nation, Prof: W. E.—Collection of birds of Peru.
New Haven, Yale College —Birds from Peru.
Poey, Prof. F.—Cuban fishes in alcohol.
Poston, Col. C. D.—Fragment of timber from the Casa Grande of Gila; hair
bridles and other articles of Indian workmanship from the Pimo villages.
Powers, W.J—lInsects, &c., in aleohol, Cuba.
Rankin, Colin.—Skins of birds and skulls of bears, Lake Superior.
Riecksecker, S. H.—Eggs of birds, Pennsylvania.
Rio Janeiro, Royal Museum of —One hundred and thirty skins of Brazilian
birds.
Rothhammer, S. M. —Skins of birds and mammals, insects, eges, &c., col-
lected during General Sully’s expedition on the Upper Missouri.
Salazar y Ilarregui, Gov—Zodlogical, botanical, and other collections made
with the “comision ‘cientifica de Yucatan” by Dr. Arthur Schott, naturalist to
_ the expedition.
Sartorius, Dr. C—Birds, reptiles, shells, &c., Mexico.
Schott, Dr. Arthur —(See Salazar.)
Sclater, Dr. P. L.—Skin of Haliaetus leucocephalus, Nova Scotia.
Sessions, Lewis—Nest and eggs of birds from Connecticut.
Shimer, Henry.—Collection of birds from Illinois.
Spangler, Geo. Fossils from Indiana.
Squier, E. G.—Fossils and shells from Peru.
Strebel, G—Shells from Mexico.
Sully, General.—(See Rothhammer; Feilner.)
Sumichrast, Prof: F.—Collection of birds, mammals, and shells, Orizaba,
Mexico.
88 LIST OF DONATIONS.
Swan, J.G—Collections of mammals, birds, shells, and Indian curiosities.
from Puget Sound.
Swi ift, Robert—Collection of birds of St. Thomas and Porto Rico.
Taylor, A. S—Grasshoppers, southern California,
Thomson, J. H.—Fishes from Buzzard’s bay, Massachusetts.
Thurston, W.H.—Minerals from Massachusetts.
Tolman, J. W.—Eggs of birds from Illinois.
Torrey, W.—Stone pestles, New York.
Tristram, Rev. H. B.—Series of skins and eggs of birds of Palestine.
Twitchell, G. S.—Belemnites from New Jersey.
Watker, R. L.—Skins of birds and mammals, Pennsylvania.
White, Lieut. J. W—Skins of seals and other mammals, birds, Indian curi-
osities, &c., Puget Sound.
Willis, i R.—Eggs and skins of birds, shells, &c., Nova Scotia -
Wolle, A—Eggs of birds, Maryland.
Wyeth, John —Petroleum from California.
LIST OF ADDRESSES OF FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS
ADDED TO THE
DISTRIDUTION LIST OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SINCE 1862, THE
DATE OF THE LAST PRINTED LIST.
SWEDEN. ,
Stockholm.—Bureau Central de Statistique de Suéde.
Bureau de la Recherche Géologique de la Suéde.
NORWAY.
Christiania.—Kougelige Selskab for Norges Vel.
Physiographiske Forening.
DENMARK.
Kjdbenharn.—Universitets-Museum.
Zoologisches Museum.
RUSSIA.
«Moskwa.—Musée Publié de Moscou.
St. Petersburg.—Bibliothek der Evangelischen Gemeinden.
Commission Impériale Archeologique.
Entomologische Gesellschaft.
Nikolai Haupt-Sternwarte.
HOLLAND.
Amsterdam.—Genootschap ter Bevordering der Bouwkunst.
Genootschap ter Bevordering der Genees en Heilkunde.
Maatschappij: Tot Nut van’t Allgemeen.
Vereeniging voor Statistik.
Breda.—Koninklijke Militaire Akademie.
Delft.—Kon. Instituut voor Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde voor Ned. Indié.
’s Gravenhage.—Government of the Netherlands.
Groningen.—Genootschap te Groningen pro excolendo Jure Patrio.
Haarlem.—Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter Bevordering van Nijverheid.
Musée Teyler.
Leiden:—Stolpiaansch Legaat.
GERMANY, INCLUDING AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.
Augsburg.—Red. des Wochenschrift fur Thierheilkunde und Viehzucht.
Berlin.—Ko6n. Ministerium fiir Handel, Gewerbe und 6ffentliche Bauten.
Zoologische Museum der Universitit.
Bremen.—Naturforschender Verein.
Briinn.—Naturforschender Verein.
Buda.—K. K. Sternwarte.
Chemnitz.—K. Gewerbschule.
Offentliche Handels-Lehranstalt.
Red. der Deutsche Industrie Zeitung. \
Darmstadt.—Grossherz. Hessische Centralstelle fur die Landes-Statistik.
90 LIST OF ADDRESSES.
Dresden.—Handels Lehr-Anstalt.
K. Polytechnische Schule.
Verein fur Erdkunde.
Eiisenach.—Gyrossherz. Carl Friedrich-Gymnasium.
ee Real Gymnasium.
Elberfeld.—Wupperthaler Thierschutz- Verein.
Géttingen.—Gottingische Verein Bergmannischer Freunde.
Zoologisches Museum.
Grétz.—Steiermarkisch-Landschaftliche Ober-Realschule,
Halle.—-Konig]. Ober-Berg-Amt.
Hannovecr.—Apotheker Verein in Nord-Deutschland.
Architecten und Ingenieur-Verein.
Historischer Verein fur Niedersachsen.
K. Polytechnische Schule.
Jena.—Landwirthschaftliche Institut.
Medicinische Naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft.
Universitats-Bibliothek.
Leibach.—Juristische Gesellschaft.
Landshut.—Historischer Verein fiir Niederbayern.
Leipzig.—Red. der Zeitschrift der Deutsche Landwirthe.
Verein von Freunde der Erdkunde.
Linz.—K. K. Landwirthschafts-Gesellschaft.
Luzembourg.—Socicté pour la Recherche et la Conservation des Monuments Historique dans
le Grand-Duché de Luxembourg.
Meseritz.—Konigliche Realschule.
Miinchen.—Baierische Gartenbau Gesellschaft.
Niesse.—K. Katholische Gymnasium.
Philomathische Gesellschaft.
Realschule.
Offenbach.—Grossherz. Handels-Kammer.
Olmiitz.—K. K. Gymnesium.
K. Kx. Ober-Realschule.
Universitats- Bibliothek.
Prag.—Verein fur Geschichte der Deutschen in Béhmen.
Regensburg.—Universitats-Bibliothek.
Reutlingen.—KRed. der Ilustrirte Monatshefte fir Obst-und Weinbat.
Rostock:.—Mecklenburgische Patriotischer Verein.
Schwerin.—Grossherz. Landes-Vermessungs-Comission. ie bie
Stuttgart,—Monatschrift fur Pomologie und praktischen Obstbau.
Trieste —Societa Scientifieo Letteraria della Minerva.
Tiibingen.—Anstalt fur schwachsinnige Kinder Mariaberg.
Weimar.—Grossherzogliche Gymnasium.
Wilhelm-Ernst Gymnasium. 2
' Wien.—Uydrographische Anstalt der Kais. Osterr. Marine. =
Handels und Gewerbekammer.
K. Kk. Marine Ober-Commando.
Wiesbaden.—Verein Nassauischer Land und Forstwiethe.
Wiirzburg.—Verein tur Nassauische Alterthumskunde und Geschichtsforschung.
SWITZERLAND.
Bern.—Okonomische Gesellschaft des Kantons Bern.
Zitrich.—Bureau Central Météorologique de la Suisse.
BELGIUM.
Bruzelles.—Société Entomelogique de Belgique.
FRANCE,
Douat.—Société Royale d’ Agriculture de Douai.
Montpellicr.—Academie de Montpellier; Faculté de Médecine.
Socicté Centrale d’Agriculture du Dept. de la Herault.
Paris.—Annales Télégraphiques.
Archives Générales de Médecine.
Societé Médicale Homceopathique.
Rennes.—Socicté des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles du Dépt. d’Ile-et-Vilaine.
LIST OF ADDRESSES.
ITALY.
Genova.—Societa ligure di Storia Patria.
Milano —Accademia Fisico-medico-statistico di Milano.
Napoli.—Societi Reale di Napoli.
Palermo.—R. Instituto d’Incoraggiamento di Agricoltura, Arti e Manifatture in Sicilia.
Siena.—Accademia di Fisiocritici.
SPAIN.
Madrid.—Real Observatorio.
San Fernando.—Real Academia.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
Aberdcen.—University.
Armagh.—Public Library.
Birmingham.—Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Dublin —Natural History Society of Dublin.
Dumfries.—Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society.
London.—Acclimatization Society.
Anthropological Society.
Cambrian Archaeological Association.
Quarterly Journal of Science.
Macelcsfield.—Macclesfield Society for Acquiring Useful Knowledge.
Manchester.—Lancashire Independent Coilege.
Noitingham.—United Lunatic Asylum.
Perth.—Murray Royal Institution.
Plymouth.—Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society.
Sandhurst.—Royal Military College.
OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
Constantinople.—Hellenic Philological Society of Constantinople.
St. Helena.—Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory.
Mauritius.—Meteorological Society of Mauritius.
Meteorological Observatory.
Melbourne.—Library of Parliament.
Mining Department.
Mining Institute of Victoria.
Royal Society of Victoria.
Sydney.—Entomological Society of New South Wales.
Buenos Ayres.*-Museo Publico de Buenos Ayres.
Halifax.—Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Montreal.—Numismatic and Antiquarian Society.
Rio Janciro.— Royal Museum.
LIST OF METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS AND OBSERVERS
OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
FOR THE YEAR 1865.
BRITISH AMERICA.
5 = x a
= 2 3 aS
= & 2 22
Name of observer. Station. & 5 ss S as
a oes a 3 a>)
— a ED & 2)
3 ree o % She
A = jen) a A
i al
©. 4 Feet.
Acadia College ......-.... Wolfville, Nova Scotia...........-. 64 25 80
Bakery e esece seca ae Stanbridge, Canada East...-....... LEW letoeesse
Magnetie Observatory ....; Toronto, Canada West..-...-..--..- 79 21 +108
Murdock;.G.oos oc2-2acceoes St. John, New Brunwick..-........ 45 16 66 03 135
Rankine \Coliniessocee cose. Michipicoton, Canada West .-~.--.-. 47 56 | 85 06 660
MEXICO.
Laszlo, Charles.....--.--- Frontera, Tabasco........--------. 18 32 | 92 40 AD wACeereey a
Sartorius, Dr. Charles ...-.| Mirador, Vera Cruz.............-.. 19 15 | 96:25) }'''3;'600 || Ave sso222 12
CENTRAL AMERICA.
MRO they (Ca Nise sea eaeee San José, Costa Rica...........--.- 954] 8406) 3,772| T. R.... 12
Wibite; William.) MoD Ss |(sAtepinwall’ 22 ssce cea eee a 923 eS Gay ACs cc si< 5
Noletaey Ajay ey MEI akan. Aspinwall\c cso cmea eee eel 9°23 | 79°53 Giulia. os = 7
WEST INDIES.
United States Consul... ....| Turk’s Island.......... ejeieace ce PAUVIU fal OOM esa sae calienoacaoe=5 2
Brayton, Milton .......... Sombrero Island: --22- eee se oe 18137 |) 63/27 ASM Ava searta= 9
Royal Engineers, (in the | Centre Signal Station, St. George’s-|........|.---...-}.------- Bo eoosae 12
Royal Gazette) ;
SOUTH AMERICA.
Hering) Of02.. =: << e=se= Government Plantation Vossenburg,
colony of Surinam, Dutch Guiana.
ee eee ee ee
* A signifies Barometer, Thermometer, Psychrom- P signifies Psychrometer.
eter, and Rain Gauge. R signifies Rain Gauge.
B signifies Barometer. N signifies no instrument
T signifies Thermometer. t Above Lake Ontario.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS. 93
List of meteorological stations and observers, §c.—Continued.
ARIZONA. aig
| | Leen ae bones
Name of observer. Station. County. He ee! | & re 5 (ay 5
: eos | ce 13
1 oes a 5 =I sm
| eal = =| a | 4
| SS nt ; 1
| se) tet Feet.
Cones, Elliot, Assistant | Fort Whipple....; Yavapi .....-..-. | 32 20 } 111 00),} 87000) )) T.-..... 7
Surgeon, U. 8. A. | |
ARKANSAS.
SS ses
Russell O.B.2c-2-c2-- cs | Helena.....----- | Phillipps ......-- | 34 33 | 90 10 | ae | T.R S| 1
|
CALIFORNIA.
| | ;
Ayres: Wi. .O., M.D. .--.-- San Francisco...| San Francisco.--| 37 48 | 122 27 SO ipAte ee 6
Canfield, Colb’t A., M.D..| Monterey.....-.- Monterey...----- 36 36 | 121 52 40 | T.P.R.. 12
Logan, Thomas M., M.D-| Sacramento --.-. Sacramento ..... 38 32 | 121 30 Gon eAlerts 11
Smith, Mrs. M. D.....-..-- Meadow Valley.-| Plumas.......... 40 20 | 12015] 3,700 | B.T.R.-| 10
: |
COLORADO. ,
Luttrell, James --........ | Montgomery.-.-.--- Park iseseaemeeee| 39 00 | 106 00 | 13,000 | T see) 5
| |
CONNECTICUT.
Hunt, Rey. Daniel -...-.-.- Pomfreti:.-+---..-| Windham -..--=-= 452 | 72 10 Die Atemserree i 12
Johnston, Prof. John..... Middletown. ....| Middlesex .......| 41 33 | 72 39 ZO) Abromerstate 12
Rockwell, Charlotte .....- Colebrook....... Litchfield . .....- AD DOR hes OD! ||saseesme WS a caeters 12
Yeomans, William H..... | Columbia . .....- Tolland). -----=5 41-40 |, 72.42 |... ae... ae tereysi 12
oa DELAWARE.
!
Hedges, Urban D., M. D -| Wilmington .....) New Castle...... | 39 47 | 1) 63} | 115 | AUS | 10
GEORGIA.
' |
Deckner, Frederick .---.-..- (Adlantais-scco-- Fulton .......... | 33 45 | 84 31 | 1050") fo | 2
IDAHO
Ziegler, A. F., M.D .----- | Fort Laramie... KSscacesseesersore | 42 10 | 104 47 | 4, 472 | GU pombe | 1
ILLINOIS.
WG RINA Weel sae cera nono Elmore.......... Peoriat acesse- ae 40 56} 90 04 BUPA LE eeseeece 9
AddrichysViernyi--- =.= <.<-5 Wiskiwaencsa—- Bureau - ©2-...-- 4115} 89 16 550.) T .------ 12
Babcoeks) Pics. -- 52-6 ---- SIGNS Gososereon McHenry-=--->.- 4211] 88 33 760 | T.R-.... 12
Ballou, N. E., M.D -.....-- Sandwich .......| DeKalb ......... 41 31] 8&8 30 GOD ele hue ser 12
Brendel, Frederick, M.D-.| Peoria.......--- Peoriau astern ee 40 43 | 89 30 460)|\ "Ab ce saan 12
Blanchard, O. A....---.-- ABV) o clic Starke seeeeeeteees eNO alsy | 6a esos iD eesee 12
Brinkerhoff, George M...-.| Springfield ...-.. Sangamon .. .-.-. 39.48 | 89 33 |...----- Ube anes = 12
Brookes, Samuel ......-.. @hicaro)—- .cosies (C00ks-)-e-eemee 42 00 | 87 30 G00) Eeeeeee 12
Dudl¢y, Timothy ........ Waverly ......... Morgan ......-.. 39 40 | 90 00 680 | T.R.... 11
Bllsworth, Ji-s..cec o-ree -| Hoylton .......-| Washington ..... 38 301 89 00 I........ Be oss agS 1
94
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS.
List of meteorological stations and observers, §:.—Continued.
a2
ILLINOIS—Continued.
S 5 a
Ss bs sl
3 £ Ce ee
; 2 | & dt hee
Name of observer. Station. County. a 5 aS g fa
be ot & & 2 3
Ss 2 i) S ay
a S q A A
ee eee
Ci C25 Feet.
Gill, Joseph H., and others., Evanston..-.... -- Cooks eee eeet 42 02 | 87 38 Fete hol hag BR Ls Ma ee 12
Cee eee liéa.. 1. $| Manehesten---=-- Scott... -42-uaee BONSY|| G0(344) ANGE il Ace- 2a 12
Griffing, Henry ----..---- Hazel Dell .....- Cumberland ..... BOROON| S800 Gee ceee Nie eeeriae 8
Kipster Eh sean eases Waterloo.....-.. Monroes-seepeene le eee eee ee eee eee 3
Livingston, Prof. William.! Galesburg --.-.--- KNOX eee eee 40 55) 8711 TRB) |) AN peisnoise 12
MesdiS: 1B. No eeeeetee VAN PEST aunts snecn = Hancocki=asssse- 40 10} 91 00 *903 | T.P.R.. 12
Merwin, Mrs. Emily H.-..| Ottawa.......... {ua Salletesemsaer 41 20 | 88 47 SOON eetiea= iL
Moore n@h Heer ester CLMTOM Peele slo === Do Witte-ess-os5 40 09 | 88 58 430) Bak soe 3
Phelps) BS! ssa-seeriea : =
Phelne SMEGIDO uD Lo. } Wyanet...------ BUREAU em eeaee a 41 30 | 89 45 |.......- ABU oon 12
Rib ee beess—ser eee. IRekiieesssescece Tazewell . ....-- 40536))\" (89.45) |22---e-- Boa 10
Rogers, O. P. and J.S.-...| Marengo....--... McHenry.------- 42 14 88 38 842 | B. T.R. 5
Schauber, H. A ..-----... Centralia . ...-..-. Mas OTe etee slate) Sere aaa ee ee are alate Hee eacicie 2
Spencer, Wom: C2 ------.- Dubois .......... Washington -.... Shel EE Wek) IG) loses ose Are 7
Spaulding, Abiram ...-.-.-- PAULONB cee aim UGH one 25355 530¢ ANGAS RS Oncol cere oll rae =e 2
Tolman, James W..-.--.-- Winnebago....-.- Winnebago....-- 42.17 | 89 12 S00) Acw eae ee 42
INDIANA.
Burroughs, Reuben ..--.-- South Bend...--- St. Joseph ..---.. 41 39 | 86 41 G00) Ree 6
Boerner, Charles G..-.---- WeVvay case anl-- | Switzerland ..--. SBPAGN = B4r5OR|z2ese TSR es: 12
Butterfield, W. W . ..---- Indianapolis .....| Marion.......... 3S 45 86 20 6985) TP eos sees 12
Chappellsmith, John...--- New-Harmony.--.| Posey .----- -..-. 38 08} 87 50 BP) Pe ceesao- 12
Collins, Rev. Samuel..... MAGISOM = senine = | Jefferson .--....- 38 45 | S35 40 400 | B. T.R.- 6
Crozier, Dr..BoS|-.-- se. +. New Albany .-..| Floyd..--.--.-.- 38.02} 85 32 Spat PAvaeeese 10
Dawson, William .....-.. Spiceland ....... Henry oon 39 48 | 85 18 1 O25 ni beeteeke 12
Griest, Miriam -.....-.--- Balbece)o--2-----.- | GEN geese a5st5- 41003) 7857005)" 4000s Be aL === 8
Hobbs, Miss Mary Anna..| Bloomingdale . ..| Parke ....-- ---. 39 48 | 8&7 00 (HIO) || Sto s5ki55 3
Loughridge, J. H., M. D...| Rensseiser....-.. Jas pelse nae e 40 56 | 8713 745) eet oe 9
Mayhew, Royal ..-.-.---- Indianapolis ...-- | Marion....-2.-.. 39 45 | 86 2 69851) Paes. 2
RU Sh igen Socuincae Columbia Whitne 4110] 85 30 T.R 4
McCoy, Miss Lizzie .... § eva BE ESC OS Staal erg vier a
Mulvey, Oliver......%... IMaCISONNe =e iis RG flerRO ater ee aerial see ell ere rere IHU boi tes- 4
Redding, Thomas B..--.-.. Newcastle ......- Rlemisyaeeeeete erat 3953} 8516) 1,000) B.T.R-- 3
Valentine, John.........- Richmond ...--.- Wisiynetereerecs 39 52 | 84 39 850 | A..----- 9
Windle, Isaac E.-....:.-- Lafayette ......-.- Tippecanoe. .... AWOL tele) Yl Isacabsse od R189 ooe 6
IOWA
Collin, Prof. Alonzo ....--| Mount Vernon...| Linn.-....- aide ZOO, SOO aerciens i geeadec 12
IDE Vbney IDS Sade ehooese6e Independence....; Buchanan..---.-- 42 30) 92 16 S500 gataeeeeee 11
Dorweiler, Phillip....-.-- Guttenburg...-. Claytonibeserrans|s-- ---)- s}2 ee ae] eee PER Pees 11
Farnsworth, P. J., M. D-...| Lyons.-..--..-.. } Clin tonleasmmister (1 41 50} 90 10 630) sla 12
Hagensick, John M..-.--.-- Ceres eeesne ss Clayton@eee---—- 42 45 91 11 SSI Vel Weep see 8
Hom AsayiMerD) saaicisic=ai=|= | Dubuque...-.... Dubuque - ....-- 42,30 | 90 40 G6Gn eave = 12
Tgipyelnt IU ok os soeciec iy OUSe er sae eeetete | Clinton. -2....-.. 40 42 | 90 10 630) | ie Ree 3
Kridelbaugh, 8S. H., M. D..| Clarinda .-..-.-...- Pape ecaceessoes||ssce5cec|s calc Peer Tes 2
McConnell, Townsend..-... Pleasant, Plain...| Jefferson -.....-.. 41 07 | 91 54 950i) Reece. 3
Soe TEER | eon Kossuth ......... 43 01| 9404] 1,500/T.R....| 7
McCready, Daniel.......-. Fort Madison. ...| Lee ......-.- mes!) 40.3% | OR OST Enea EES S555 12
Mead:Allen: <2 ce -seee = Manchester ...... Delaware - ------ 42 30} 91 30 OR on alae 4
Mead, Chauncey .......-- ; Monticello....... JONEGS <s2ence=s=- 42.13} 91 15 tSiet0) | UR Svar 8
INashViRey.id. cA: eneee | Des Moines.-.-..- Polk ieeeseeeeee 41530) | oones Ole emesis eater 5
Parvin, Prof. Theodore S.| lowa City -..--.. ! Johnson) .-s.-- -- ¢ A
Pratt, George B.-.-....--. Dayenport .-.-..-. | Scott. sseeeeeee = A
Steedjieecse-eae Risa cee Waterloo . .....- Black Hawk .-.. Ub
Townsend, Nathan...--.. Iowa Falls ...... Hardin caso =~ aes
Walton, Josiah P.. ...... Muscatine .--.... | Muscatine -.----- A
Wheaton, Alex. Camp..-..| Independence - . ‘| Buchanan .-.---.- :
I |
* Above low-water mark at Quincy.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS.
List of meteorological stations and observers, §¢—Continued.
95
KANSAS.
, 3 E e =
= = r= ae
5 a S 2 Be
Name of observer. Station. County. Zl “ g FS
cs ee 3 E aS
5 3 a ha e™
A 5 fc re A
Cae ome Feet.
Agricultural College Manhattan .- ..-. Riley. -2=--.2.... 39:13} 9645) 1,000] T.R...
Beckwith, W .----- ------ Olatha ...--..-.. Johnson ......... 38:50) |, °94''30)|-22eae=5 ER: eae
Horn, Dr. H. B. and Miss | Atchison ..--..--- Atchison’ <.22...- 39130") 95700) |seu sees acres
Clotilde.
Post Surgeon .-..-..----- Fort Riley-.--.-- Davisieeeeee esas 39 00} 96 30] 1,300} T.R...
Woodworth, Abner, M- D-| Council Grove. --| ~~. ee eee nee. Cee Tyee
KENTUCKY.
|
loz ayy Octasce asneceeroe Danyille -- -.---- Boylemesoseennee 37 40 | 84 30 900 | B. T.R 12
POH Shite sa see esaia.c WOndon 32 232-4- baureleocee eens. Selon eS adOse| sate ats call acetone 6
Martin, Dr. Samuel D ....; Chilesburg ....-- | Payette —--saeeec 38 04 | 84 20 900) Bae. 11
Young, Mrs. Lawrence. -. .| Louisville --..... Jefferson: ---ce- = 38 07 | 85 24 SY |p ents SA 12
MAINE.
| | |: |
DAMA WINS Dect mci. sce North Perry ..--. Washington ..... | 45 00 | 67 06 100 AV oes cer 4
Gardiner, Rey. Frederick 2) : 7 é | |
Pee er |} yGeediner .:-.-.- | Kennebec ....--- | 4441) 6946] 120 | A....... 12
GupalliGeWeese=- = Womishi=yse—- sl York... Sse | 43 401 70 44 | SOON Secrets 12
Moore, AsapP oo. .3 c2s-5. iisbon)-s----)-- = | Androscoggin ....| 44 00 | 70 04 130) eee 123
Moulton, John P ..-...---- | Standish .. ....-.. Cumberland ---.. | 43 45 | 70 30 Pasion WANs Miche IL
Parkers casecce cise oc Steuben -...-.-...- Washington ..... 44 31 | 67 57 DO arcane 12
Pitman, Edwin-......---. WES ctccenckesee Penobscot - .----- | Sse35=6= \possobuallbcopnoee Wn ae eee 12
Robinson, Almon ...----- Webster......-..- Androscoggin. .-| 44 04); 70 04 |........ deere iL
Wiest ollase se saiceacs Comishiy se-s2-- Morksnsceeeeeees 43 40; 70 44 7384! BTR 12
Wilbur, Benjamin F...... West Waterville.| Kennebec - ..--..|........ See aa ee| PEaonee We DS eS 12
| I |
MARYLAND.
5 Sykesville ..-..- Carrollessss-e eee 39 23 | 76 57 MOON | ates 1
Baer, Mies Harriott M...§ Frederick ....... Frederick ....... BORA TT. VT | ices. Je: 1
Goodman, William R...-. Annapolis ----.-- Anne Arundel...| 3858! 76 29 DON AY ree 14
Grape, George E.-....... Catonsville ....-- Baltimore ...--.-- 39 17 76 42 A rete ate os 1
McCormick, James O..... Woodlawn ....-- Cecil! 2222s On | mGh OAc as cecnte sade es 10
Stephenson, Rev. James .-! St. Inigoes ....-- St. Mary’s2.-22-- 38 10 | 76 30 BD il) Abate Sac 11
i
~ MASSACHUSETTS.
Astronomical Observatory.) Williamston ....-
Bacon, William .......-.. Richmond..-...-
Barrows, N.;. M.D ....-': Sandwich ..-.----|
Caldwell, John H ........ Newbury .-..----
Davis, Rev. Dr. Emerson.| Westfield . .-----
Dewhurst, Rey. Eli-....-. Baldwinsville. -...
Fallon Joins cuteness ae Lawrence ......-
Fendler, Augustus ....--.- Cambridge ..--..
Merriam, Arthur M....--.. Topsfield). --./--
Metcalf, John Geo., M. D -| Mendon .-....----!
Nelson, Henry M......... Georgetown ...-.
Rice, FP; Ws. ctessoeeeeo Worcester .-.-.. --
Rodman, Samuel ...-...-.. New Bedford....-
Swell, Prof. Was-ccccse—e ‘Amberst!-----> =. |
Berkshire
Berkshire
Barnstable
Essex
Hampden
Worcester
NOLL. @emeeese inn ci
Middlesex
Hssex
Worcester
BISs€X = 2: Sameer
Worcester
Bristol
96 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS.
List of meteorological stations and observers, §c—Continued.
MICHIGAN.
Pry 5 3
3 = wiles
5 = 2 aos
As q \23
Name of observer, Station. County. 2 & 2 | ae
S 2 Sy a on
A a a = A
hu Feet.
Ellis, Edwin, M. D...--.- Garlick . ........| Ontonagon ..-.-- 90 00] 1,440 | T.R..... 4
Kedzie Prof .'C--- 5-5 Mansing ee onec- Imghamiaseseeeee 84 34 BOD tA aera ee 12
Mapes, Henry H.-..--...-- Qshiemo -...-..-. Kalamazoo\ cas ce| see eee eee reeeen ae Nyssa 12
(Parkers cB ace cseeaee Grand Rapids -.-.} Kent)........--.- 8&5 30 680) | Wieesscee 1
Reasner, F. M., M. D...-. Manchester.....- Washtenawoe 2 [Sone cer tee oe: ezaeosee Rese 5
Smith, Harmon M........ Kalamazoo ....-. Kalamazoo ...... 85) 400|Eaeeas oe Ni esccc 5
Steele, George E........- Homestead ...... Benzie) cme ei- = S6rO0 Ea sessee Tceaeccas 12
Weeks, James A......-.- Rontisietrs- =i. Oakland ......-. 83 14 OP Lled| oles ooae 8
Whelpley, Miss Florence E.| Monroe .--.-. .--- Monroeeecces. =: 83 23 ay) BiG yaa 12
MINNESOTA.
Babcock Drebs i cose ATEON ee secce ce Washington ....-. 44 50 | 93 00 0503 Reeeeenne 8
Cheney, William ........- Minneapolis - -- -- Hennepin -.----- 45 00} 93 10 eHie) 1 AN s-Gedoc 12
Paterson, Rev. A. B., D. D.} St. Paul. ........ Ramseynee sc 44 57 | 93 05 SOON Piatee=- 12
Roos, Charles -...-..-..... INewaliiman= == IBrOWIlee ssc 4. 44 16 | 94 26 Sted || Laas Soe 12
Smith) Henrys o.<.-- Forest City...-.. Meeker cmecte = amia|040) 40) SOROOM Seamer BBG EA SS 6
Stouffer, Andrew .-. ..---. Bowles’ Creek...| Washington ..... 44 56 | 92 52 8003) eeeaee= 1
Waeland iC ccanse sas Beaver Bay.----- | Wuakelessacmansise 47.12'| 91 18 650) | To = 5- 12
Woodbury, C. W ..-...-.- SHAY aaaehs acne Sibleyen-eeeses 4431 | 9426) 1,600) T.R.... 8
MISSISSIPPI.
McCary, Robert.........- Natchez ----..--- -Adams.......... 31 34 | 91 25 264 | B.T.R {2
MISSOURL
Caldwell Jeu sscconecee AGN cree ae cee Clary cceeeneee| cocaine wocaclemalsoimeasier Md 00) Bae 10
Christian) John. = -c-e-.s Harrisonville): 5...) Cassicccsecies oe = SOr4O Rn mOATSON| mere is 12
Engelmann, George, M.D.| St. Louis-....... Stwuowisleeec sce 38 37} 9015 48)19| -Avseecee= 2
Fendler, Augustus -...... Allenton. 2-24 Staduouistase.. ais 38 29} 90 45 4621) SB akeeee 7
Raya Gecrpelenss-cmsseee Canton. onecceoe Wewisieocswetas- - 40712) COIN Sil eoee ee Hse 12
Sibley. PB oe asceesaaeee Bas tONusc oss cee Buchanan ..-..... 39546) 94s 2oN ee seeeee Danes 3
Stuntebeck, F. H., S. J...) St. Gonis..--2-.- StyDouissa-ts-.- 38 37 | 90 15 ATO) wACse sate 12
NEBRASKA.
Bowen, JohnS........... Elkhorn City....}| Washington -.... 4) 221 96:42 || 15,3505) Wee see 12
Hamilton, Rev. William ..| Bellevue .......-. Sarpygeeee== ce ALO85 6 9500)| erm aes renee 12
Jetty |i deseespscnseceser JONINE Ee eeeeesie Dixonresssecen=s CPt GIN eaeooss S000) | MRSRvenee 2
Thompson, R. O .-.-.-.--- | Nursery, Hill 522 2|\Otodeeseseia—= = 40 40 | 95 51 I 26644) Rie seems §
‘
NEVADA.
Sa ELA l
Johnson, R. C-------.---- | Star City........ | Humboldt --.---- 40 30 | 117 30} 7,500 | T....... 3
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
eee
Brown, Branch....-..--.--- Stratford..-.....- Coosita=seee=—=-- 4408) | 7134 + - 1,000 | Deke 12
Chase, Arthur=.----2--s.4 Claremont. .-..... Sullivanee------- 43 22 | 72 21 539 | BoD Rec 12
Mead, Stephen O.......-- Claremont-...... Sullivanteema.s--|ecesiani- lesen ect ee cee ae eis 3 12
Nason, Rev. Elias.-.---.-- Bixeter ---.------ Rockingham..... 42 58) 70 55 125))) Bee 5
Odell, Pletcher os --.-- 7 Shelburne. ...... Coosieee=eeeee ee 44 23 | 71 06 700!) (Bsus 12
Pitman, Charles H......- North Barnstead.| Belknap.....-..-. AST SOil iain ed dome Ree TR ces 12
Wheeler, John T.......-- Goncord=..- ees Merrimack ...... 43 12) 71 29 400 | B. T. R-. 3
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS. 97
List of meteorological stations and observers, §:.—Continued
NEW JERSEY. ;
. v m
o og r= |
= E FS ae
a= £2) | Shas)
= a = isa
Name of observer. County. te 2 + 8 re
a= | ~~ a P o3
5 $ 3 a en
A = He | 4g Z
OG of
i. Feet.
Alexander, Archibald-.--. Long Branch .... Monge 2.) CODD SEAS ore ee se eae Bd Deere 3
Progress. .-..---.| Burlington .-.... 40 03} 75 11 NSS MESS ar 3
Beans, Thomas J....... Moorestown ..... Burlington .....- 39)59'| 74.54 |c..- 22m T.R 9
Brooks, William......---. Passaic Valley.-.} Passaic.........- 40 53 | 74 12 140 | T.R 12
Gole sparker 3: 5-32-25... Hoeavilles.csccoc: Cape May......- 39 20} 74 40 18) | sew 8
Cook, Ephraim R .....-.. Trenton. ---.---. Mercer te trmmttat |mceisee 5 |see stoc.e a | sam cc es ip Ree 4
Cook, George H.-.-...--. New Brunswick .| Middlesex ....... 40 30 | 75 31 SO! | einer 3
mMeacon:: John C--325--<..- Burlington .--.-. Burlington ..--.-.- 40 05 75 10 60 | T.R 12
Lippincott, James § ....- Cole’s Landing ..| Camden.#....... 39 54 | 75 02 O00 Eerste 11
Lippincott, Joseph W ----| Moorestown ..... Burlington .....- AON 005)).175:.00' |- 3-2-5 2 Aus 2
Rhees, Morgan J., 1. D...| Mount Holly .-..| Burlington ...-.-. 39 59 | 74 47 30 | B.T 12
Bea ia O22. | Greenwich 22. Cumberland .. ..} 3920] 7525] 30] A%...... 12
Thompson, George W.-.-.| New Brunswick -| Middlesex -...--. 40 30 | 75 31 0) WL oso sec 8
Whitehead, W. A.--.---- Noewarkiic jane cta: EIsS@Kivssujd\ofewi stake 40 45 | 74 10 Shy tl letya Wen es 12
NEW YORK.
Arden, Thomas B....---- Garrison’s ....--- Putnam -ssesene 4) 22) 74 02 1800 |p 12
Aubier, Rev. Jno. M., S.J-| New York...-.-.. New Yorks sess. 40 44 | 73 59 OF Ba 6
Barrows, Storrs ...----!..| South Trenton...| Oneida.........-. 4310] 74 56 Goon) Woe. 12
Bartlett, Erastus B.....-- Vermillion. ....-.- Oswego .....--.. 43 26 | 77 26 Pare PAE Ves ry
Beauchamp, William M..-.) Skaneateles -.... Onondaga -..-..-. 43 00 | 76 30 932 | Bo 1: il
Bowman, John..........! | Baldwinsville....| Onondaga -...... ASIOS76%4 || 525252 - aes 12
Pht ORMUE a sss sce oc | Auburn ......... Cayugs -...-22-- 42°55 | 76 28 650) 2B eee 12
Denning, William H ..... | Fishkillon Huds’n,) Dutchess .-..-... 41 34 | 74 18 42 | B.T. R.. 12
Dewey, Prof. Chester ....| Rochester ..-.--- Monroe. :-22s=--- 43 07 | 77 51 516 | B. T.R-. 12
Gardiner, James H-..-.-.-- | New burg..----.< Oranges? ss —-4-eee 41 31] 74 OL SoC Bele 12
Gregory, S. O22. - 2c: .-<.. | theresaie~-ee- = t Jefferson ......-.- 4412] 75 48 BOD! | Dare 12
HAR PELBOD YS onc soci | Depauville .:-.-- Jeterson! scenes BASE | ames 3 350) (eno) coal 11
Haswell, Rev. James R. my Sherburne. ..-..-.. Chenango) 5222-4 sae eee seems] ows icteese Yeeros vf
Heimstreet, John W-.----- | INGO a Sccscosoe Rensselaer .... -- 42 44 | 73 40 SB. Abaca =
Howell, Robert ...----...- WNICholas sce seceoe OPA ness AO SOOM Pe iGi82) || Sas <== =,- ee eee 12
Hyde, Stephen .......... | Palmyra 2s cib:. Wayne..2caseee 43 04 | 77 20 AGO: |) SR eer 3
Ingalsbe, Grenville M....| South Hartford ..| Washington -..-. 43 15 | 73 21 AQO) | TsiRys 12
Joy, Prof. Charles A ..... ! New York. ...... Wew York==="22= 40 43 | 74 05 |....-. calf JN osoo ccc 9
Mack. ‘Rev5 li T....2. | Blatbush ....-..- Rn 68) = .j<5 5 ae 40 37 | 74 02 O45 | Baa Ree 12
MICMOLO Ee. Aas ce sane ==. 6 Hort;Anns. 2.08 - Washington -..-- 42 39; 73 44] 1,43 Dey s- te 8
Malcom, Wm. Schuyler ..; Oswego .-.-..---. Oswego .---,=--- 43 28 | 76 30 250 | B. LPoR-: 12
Mathews, M. M., M. D....| Rochester -...... Monroe: 22/2. 2266 43 08 77 51 By ee ae 2
Morris, Miss Elizabeth....| Throg’s Neck..-.| Westchester... -. 40 49 | 73 49 AS ae aes ie
Morris, Prof. Oran W..--. | New York..-.... New York... -<. 40 43 | 74 05 10))|| Avene 12
GREG dig ears mecese es | Warsaw: setae = - Wyoming? 2--c- =: AOS nas elON| Ts ae UI ey see 3
“ }@linton saa) =:= Onecidan=eoeecaee 43 03 7 15 6007) Bae 3
Paine, Horace M., M. D- ; | Albany ....-.... Albany ...02 42 39| 73 44 73|P.T.R.. 6
Roe, Sanford W.-.-..--.-.-- | Jamestown ..---- Chautauqua..... 420060) 7929) | > 1,454 tt ee 12
Russel, Cyrus H.-..-..-..-. | Gouverneur ..... St. Lawrence..--| 4419 | 75 29 |.......- Beak... 12
Bee Me Nioat 11 5| Mowieheas---..- Suffolk.........- 40 49| 72 36 Ager ay.) "18
Soule, Prof. William -.-...- | Cazenovia. -.--.- Madison. ....-..- 4200 | 0 46 |" 21,260 | BT ..:- 6
Spooner, Stillman, M. D.-| Oneida.........- Madison’: -22ese= 43 04 | 75 50 1010) od Ba 2 12
Trowbridge, David-....-- Hectore2eea4- 5. Schuylers-soee-- 42 30 | 77 00 SOORI AN sacle 4
Wallis Oliver R...25.../.- White Plains ....| Westchester ...-- ALTOS Wt 40 deco. a ee 11
Wilson, Rev. W.D., D.D-.| Geneva ........- Ountaniogss 22 —eeer AS ot tLO2 Sole | peewee 12
Yale; Walter D...--.-....- Houseville....... Lewis *-..-- .--; CRUE) aS) eee RR oer 1
OHIO.
JN evs) Gls Pel eee See Welshfield.. -. ..| Geauga......-.. Missa eolel sn | 1205) | Makiccs =. 12
Bambach, Dr, Gieeuoce ee Ripley) =. <2. =<: - Brown -:=2ci@see 38 47} 83 31 LOG PAGaceemoe 12
Benner, Josiah F.....-... New Lisbon ..... Columbiana -.... 40 45 | 80 45 961 | B. T.R.- 12
Crane, George W .----... Bpihel soe os esse Clermont..-..- <2 39 00} 84 00 Ooo) | DR 2222 12
Engelbrecht, Lud......-. Portsmouth... .- Scioto.--2-.s-ree 38 45 | 82 50 DSi | bales 8
Fraser, James B.......... Saybrook .....-. Ashtabula. ...--- 41 48 | 80 53 |....-...|- WB ooc5=6- 12
Hammitt, John W...-...-- College Hill .-... Hamiltons-seeeee 39 19 84 26 800i) “ERs 11
Harper, George W -....-- Cincinnati -....-.- Hamilton..--..--.. 39 06 | 84 27 *309 4UAS oe splits 12
* Above low water in the Ohio river.
des
98
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS.
List of meteorological stations and observers, §c.—Continued.
x
‘
OHIO—Continued.
& 3 oo ales
£ = Bg
3 & 3g £2
Name of observer. Station. County. ac) a fe A ae
- We oe Banas
° 2 2} a S)
A i= 0) a G
oy ony Feet.
Haywood, Prof John..-.-- Kingston ....-.-- Ross .----------- 39 29 | 83 00 GON AN cmemee 11
Huntington, George C-.--.-| Kelley’s Island ..| Erie.-.-..-...-- 41 36 | 82 42 587 Be Dak 12
eae Sabie Ace \i@leveland -.----- Cuyahoga ....--. 4130| 8140| 643|B.T.R 12
Larch, Miss ‘Ollitippa J -..| Eaton -...---.-.-- rehlemeaect ace 39 54 84 25 | 1,40 bh Wie er 4
MeMillan, Smith B....--- East Fairfield - --| Columbiana ..-.. 40 41 80 44 PSS BAC eer.cts 12
Mathews, Joseph MecD...-.| Hillsborough --.-| Highland..--.--.- 39 13 St Saulace.. Ari tases 12
Myers, John H--------=-- Smithville-...--- Waynes:. 2... 40 52 8l 51 OBA EP Se Ee 2 2
Newton, Rey. Alfred ..... Norwa.k .....-..- Huyroni sae ce 4B)! MOQESS ye ee tod nes 12
Phillips Cleee eee Cincinnati - -.---- Hamilton........ 39 06 | 84 27 588 | B. T. R-- 12
Rankin, Rev. D. M....--- | Cuyahoga Falls--| Summit ------.-.-- 42°00) PEST OO oem i ees °
Rodgers; Ate ere ess--- Gallipolis...----- Galligeeepaenacet 39 00 | 82 00 600 | T.R 9
Schauber, Hubert A.----- Centralia..-..-- -- Manion Reo) <isjoe| Semon cise cares | eee IN 1
Thompson, Rey. David. -..| Milnersville - -.--| Guernsey - -.---.- 4050) SU 45 4 ee oat a= faa ae 12
Thompson, Prot. H. A .-..| Westerville... --- Franklin -....-.. 4004 }\ 83)00' |--~--. -- INocossse i
Trembley, J. B., M. D---.| Toledo....-.---- WWE seca eocoar 41 39 | 82 22 604 | B.T.R-- 12
Wiha 18k VANS We Dee ABS MATION S.-i = «son Marion .. . . 40 35 83 08 OTe | knee treere 11
"Mitre menmManeplay ys cele s11 College Hill..---. Hamikton.....--- 39 19 84 26 BU0h|) Rs. 3
Williams. Prof. M.G --.--- Winbatare =e Champaign...--. 40 06 83 43 1, O15) Batok. 12
Wilson, Prof. J. H ..----- College Hill -.-.. Hamiulton.-..-... 39 19 84 25 800))|) SBicb Re 8
Winchester, Electus D....| Austinburg - --..| Ashtabula....... 41 54} 80 52 easy 3 5u Wee a 12
Winger, Martin .....-.-.-- Wooster.-....--. Wayne:.-..-.-.. 40 49 | 81 57 Vi} |S ascmece 12
OREGON.
: = ATM DUED oe 5 Sacic'nis Baketeeceacset ies 44°45) | 118) 16' | - 3/300) Riess. =. 2
Hindman, S. M. W----- Albany. ...-..-- Linnea. 44 22|12300| '600| R.....-- 2
Mronsides Rave aesteeeee- Auburn ...-.---- iBAKenea es eneee- CVS fl eae en Sete Dip jie Se 1
RIVVaS es Wee te eter Dalem sees seer WERE 3 Soa c dase 44 56 | 123 O1 1207/8 eR 1
PENNSYLVANIA.
Meee eee ee eee eee
Bentley yao. seca ABE Soeaeetooce Ub @eth Spbb oeseee 4200 | 7700] 1,000] T.R-... 12
Boyers; Wa dace coe Blairsville ....-.. Indiana ...-..--. 40 30 | 74 43 | 1,010 |) TD. R -.. 1
Bruckart wh? Goce ee ces Silver Spring.-...| Lancaster -.----- 40) 05) 46745" =e eee Ab nboeidine 12
Brugger. Samuel.......-. lemun os oe eeee ee \A@eninerecena= a= o- 40 55 | 77 53 (805) RoR eo 3
Clark /Profi Ac 'Gose..|: Tse ie w= 7
TERT hag eee ony cWostchostor <2. Chester ...-.-.-. 39.571]. 75136) |encceees Bote. 2
Darlington, Fenelon. ...-. Pocopson=--2-s-- @hesterie cece - 39 40 | 75 37 Patek || MRI es 12
Day, Theodore-........--. Dy: bernyss= = s-= i= AWES 32) 5boseeee ES TOaN eave) | eoneobine eR ere 12
Duffield, Henry, M. D.-...| Oxford .....:---. Chester . ---.---- SPUN OS) IL pose oe Jy SBe Scat 5
Eggert, John... .--:.--- BERWICK lee leeneia Columbia - .....- 41 05 | 76 15 583 | B. T.R 1
Mento nish al see ccna Grampian Hills.-} Clearfield - -...--. 41 00} 7840) 1,400} B.T.R-. 12
Grathwohl, John...-..... Blooming Grove-| ‘PRikesis- <..-----| 41 .30'] 75 00 |---.-.2: Ai ioeae 9
Hance, ..Ebenezer-.-..--.- Fallsington...--. IBUCKHIse soe - so: 40 12 | 74 48 SOA Ssiicsies 12
Heisely,,Dr. John .......- Harrisburg ..---- Daphne. esa = 40 GE) tO et5y aoe AGE eae 12
Hoffer, Dr. Jacob Waeoase Mount Joy --.--- Taneaster -...--. 4008 | 76 30)|52-- 2222 B. T. R-- 12
srry wie: pGeumenare oe. Adams........-. 3949] 7715| 624| B.T.R 2
James, Prof. iC. 8 --...--.- Lewisburg -. ---. Wnionteesa-- «--- 405814). “76 R58) eee vee AU asi, 12
Kirkpatrick, Prof. Jas. A.| Philadelphia... -- Philadelphia-..... 39/57) TSP ll GON WAN cca 12
Kohler, Edward..-..-.----. North Whitehkall.| Lehigh --..--.--- 40 44 | 75 28 A500 eee nt 12
Martindale, Isaac C---.--. By berry eee Philadelphia... -.. 40 05 | 75 00 MOM feNtenesete = 12
Meehan, Thomas..-.-.--. Germantown! =.) (ehiladelphia es. -| <<! neteins| sees ease diac Seenc 9
Ricksecker, Lucius E ....| Nazarcth......-. Northampton ..-.| 40 43} 75 21 DoD) element aes 12
Smith, Wm:; DiD)-----.- Cannonsburg.---| Washington ...-.- 40 16 80 10 9361) B. 0. Ree 12
Spencer, Miss Anna -..---- Horsham . .....- Montgomery ..--| 4000 | 75 11 go0 |) B. TOR: 12
iyo Wes ae eco Bphrataescatct<- Lf OSES 2 peel Borne cose 200.55 ol poosdea. T Rasass 2
Paylor,Jobn)----e-ees=ae Connellsville ....} Fayette -....-.-.- EAU (NO |) 7K) ST oes esse == 12
RHODE ISLAND.
Caswell, Prof. Alexis......| Providence .....- Providence .....| 41 49] 71 25 120): NWA Shea oe re
Crandall, William H..--.. Newport ...-..-- Newport .....-.. 41 28} 71 21 20) | ee 4
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS. 99
List of meteorological stations and observers, &c.—Continued.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
> Sg a
alii: et ee
2 cee = uo]
F =< & =| co
Name of observer, Station. County. 3 FI : I ae
< = 4 Fy S38
3) a ES 2
S SS ‘3 @ he
4 es x A Aa
One Ont Feet.
Marsh, M.M., M. D.... '
Marshes o-6 saan e< } Beaufort --.....- Beaufort ..--..-- 32 21 | 80 41 la] EMO) se
Suter, Major C. R., U.S. | Hilton Head....-. Beguiort.cececer es 32 14] 80 40 OF ee aa
engineers, |
’ TENNESSEE.
SS SST ee ae ee | Ge ee
Stewart, Prof. Wm. M ..-..|Clarksville -.....-. Montgomery..--.. | 36 28 | 87 13 | 48] | AY, are | 12
UTAH.
Burgon, George A...-... Fi
Sele ee pene } St. George....... Washington ..... Eye Intl ae (0) eee | TR eae
Helps, Wa WVitis= pata) -< Salt Lake ....... Salt Lako -.....- 40 45 | 111 26 | 4,320] T.R--. ‘| 12
VERMONT.
Buckland, Harmon....-.- IBrandonyaiossee Rutland: .\.-55s4- 43 45 | 73 00 460) | ROI S12 w
Cutting, Hiram A .....-.. Lunenburg ..---- IIR Geese. rise Aa 28 71 al) 1194) As... cee 2
Paddock, James A -...--- Craftsbury ...--- Orleans). oo -ceen- AEAO bn ares2o) (0 1 LOO SIR, ~,<. 12
Paine, ChariesL .......-.. Hast Bethel....-. Oranges-s- cases A3 35 | 72 36 700} T: Re... 2
Sheldon. Harmon A ...--- Middlebury...... Addison :<-.5.=2% 43 59 | 73 10 Sey WN Godsoce 12
a
VIRGINIA.
Shriver, Howard.-..-...-. | Wytheville .-.... | Wiyth3icn- ees | 36 55 | 81 04 | 2, 400 | B.T | 2
WASHINGTON.
Swan, JamesG .......-.. Neeah Bay -.-.--- | Sete latallaia tata | 48 41 | 124 37 | aire) ote | 12
WEST VIRGINIA.
Roffe, Charles L -....--.- Ashland........- Cabell. s2ssa-ae | 38 30 | 82 16 | 600 | T.R | 8
nn tL
‘ WISCONSIN.
Breed, J. Everett........- Embarass -...-.- Waupaca. ...--- 44 51 fot tats x) sec UY Mash ms pul
MEMUHIE Wie WV oS ceccie esos = Rocky Run...--- Columbia-.-.--..-- ASK26" | S919 eee te. TERE Soar 12
Deckner, Frederick. -..--- Green Bay .-.-.- BLOW eeetalsterelees 44 34 | 88 07 Uo |) dist ceee 9
Eddy, Levens...------.--- Delavan .-..--.- -- Walworth....... 42 39 | 88 37 Osi |) Sid bh foo 12
Ellis, Edwin, M.D -.-...-- Odanah)>----=--- Ashland) aescneee 46 33 | 91 00 (HO) |) Sie Goss 8
Hachez, Ferdinand ..-..--- New Holstein. ...| Calumet....--.-- 28) 2 Gil stele) | ese eeee INE PASas 1
- GRuraleee a ~-o. Waupaca-.....- 4415] 89 05 OVO) ate eeeeeteter= 4
Hicka, John €-.......... ’ Weyauwega....| Waupaca- ------ 4415] 88 50 850) | eather 8
Lapham, Iner’se A., LL. D.| Milwaukee .-..-.-- Milwaukee .....- 43 03 | 87 56 604) | AN ieee a= 12
IL pS VIACOD Sees ss snc Manitowoc ....-- Manitowoe ...--. 44 07 | 87 45 658) | Bae iz
Nike ots Bl Oka Seno eee eee Waupaca -.-.-.... Waupaca. .....- 44 20] 2x89 11 O00 Ree =a 12
Woeller; Goes acs. -- =a. Plymouth .......| Sheboygan ----.. 43 44 | &8 07 S70) (GB Ee 8
Porter; Henry D==:.-=--- 133 Geeseencs pee Rock. s-e. cea 42 30 | 89 04 ON te Acreeetar 12
Sterling, Prof. John W ...| Madison -. ...--- Dane secre A305.) 89°25, | 1,068 | A ..-- <= 8
martes ML. Oiocpase isteeeiace Baraboos.a--.2- Nauk.- asec eee 43 27 | 88 45 9207))/4 PR es. 12
Ward, Prof. Wm. H ...... PRaponiese sem ara Fon du Lac..-...- 437047) 88799))|-==5-- 2 Bere ter 2
Whiting, William H...... Geneve =. ----—- Walworth....... 42 30} 89 41 600) | N Saaese 11
Winkler, Carl, M. D...-..| Milwaukee -..-.-.- Milwaukee... .... 43 03 | 87 57 630 | Ba TR 12
.
a
100
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS,
Deaths of observers.
Urban D. Hedges, M. D., Wilmington, Delaware, November 4, 1865.
Royal Mayhew, Indianapolis, Indiana, March, 1265.
Colleges and other institutions from which meteorological registers were received
during the year 1865, included in the preceding list.
Nova Scotia
@anada csc ences. ae eres
IATKANSAS! icc econ eee
Connecticut
Illinois -
Iowa
Kansas’ -- sae eee centro ee
Maryland
- Massachusetts
Michigan
Missouri
New Hampshire
INGwaOtke pep ene -acaeraee
i
’
Acadia College :
Magnetic Obseryatonyenses ee -eeeeees 2 eee
Normal School: se een sete ese eee eae
Griswold College
lowa State University
Agricultural College
St. Timothy {smile ses ae= eer ee ae
Amherst College
State Lunatic Hospital
Williams’ [Colleres:eee secs s-2 se eeeer
State Agricultural College. ..-.-.-.-..-.-
St. Louis University
St. Paul’s School
Columbia College
Institution for Deaf and Dumb-....-..----
Erasmus Hall Academy
Oneida Conference Seminary-..--------...
St. Francis Xavier’s College
University of Rochester
Harmers {College peeeracr -aeissee eeeeeese
Otterbein University
UrbanaUniversityaeesn-n2 sees eee
Woodward High School
Central High School
Jefferson) Collemensasa=- 2+ ssa ceeee- eee
Lewisburg University
Brown Universitye-se--)sescce es eee one
Stewart College
Beloit: |\Collévemeeetea- = 3 -ssescsaecneoe
WasconsingUiniversity=~ 5-1 2c eee
Se
Wolfville.
Toronto.
Helena.
Middletown.
Galesburg.
Mount Vernon.
Davenport.
Iowa City.
Manhattan.
Catonsville:
Amherst.
Worcester.
Williamstown.
Lansing.
St. Louis.
Concord.
New York.
New York.
Flatbush.
Cazenovia.
New York.
Rochester.
College Hill.
Westerville.
Urbana.
Cincinnati.
Philadelphia.
Cannonsburg.
Lewisburg.
Providence.
Clarksville.
Beloit.
Madison.
METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 101
METEOROLOGICAL MATERIAL CONTRIBUTED IN ADDITION TO THE REGULAR
OBSERVATIONS.
Armstrong, M. K—Summary of observations at Yankton, Dacota, from
June to December, 1865.
Barclay, Rev. J. T—Observations at Jerusalem, from June, 1851, to Janu-
ary, 1855, by ? and from September, 1853, to June, 1859, by
R. G. Barelay, M. D., and M. 'T. Deniss. Also observations at Jaffa, Palestine,
from April to October, 1859, (except July,) by Rev. J. T. Barclay. Manu-
script.
ae Piten, W. M—Summary of observations for the year 1865, at Skane-
ateles, New York.
Brayton, William.—Record of the fall of rain in Phillipsburg, St. Martins,
West Indies,-during the months of July, August, September, October, Novem-
ber, and December, 1864, copied by William Brayton, from the records of Z.
C. Z. Huntington.
British Museum.—Catalogue of the collection of meteorites exhibited in the
mineral department of the British Museum, with the dates and places where
found, and the weight of each specimen. Four pages 4to. August 1, 1863.
Bureau Central Meétérologique de la Suisse, Zurich—Monthly bulletin of
observations, 4to, at about eighty different stations.
Christiania Observatorium.—Meteorologische Beobachtungen; aufgezeichnet
auf Christiania Observatorium. 1837-1863. Christiania, 1865. 4to, 711 pages.
Meteorologiske lagttagelser paa Christiania Observatorium, 1864. Christiania,
1865. 4to, 50 pages.
Clark, Hendricks—Table showing the highest and lowest temperature in
each month from observations made daily at sunrise, noon, and sunset; also
the quantity of rain and depth of snow, for the ten years from 1856 to 1865,
inclusive, at New Creek station, Hampshire county, West Virginia.
Clough, J. B—Diagram of daily curve of temperature in Hennepin county,
Minnesota, from December 1, 1864, to December 31, 1865, from observations
taken at morning, noon, and night.
Connolly, H.—Observations at Fort Nascopie, Hudson Bay Territory, from
October, 1864, to June, 1865, inclusive.
Delaharpe, J.—Les variations de la pression barométrique ont-elles un effet
sensible sur homme dans les Alpes? Par J. Delaharpe, docteur-médecin.
(Extrait du bulletin, No. 43, de la Société vaudoise des Sciences naturelles.)
8vo., 6 pages.
Doyle, Joseph B—Observations made at 7 a. m., 12 m., and 6 p. m. at Steu-
benville during the year 1865. One small manuscript book.
Engelmann, George, M. D.—Summary of observations for each month of
1864, and also of the year, at St. Louis. From the St. Louis Medical and Sur-
gical Journal. 22 pages, Svo.
France, Minister of Public Instruction—Archives de la Commission scienti-
fique du Mexique. Publiées sous les auspices du Ministére de 1’ Instruction
Publique. Tome premier. Paris, 1865, Svo, 467 pages.
This volume contains the following articles on meteorology: Météorologie et
Physique du globe, par M. le maréchal Vaillant, pages 62-73. Reproduction
des instructions de l’association pour l’avancement de l’astronomie, de la phy-
sique, et de la météorologie, pages 190-210. Des variations hororaires du baro-
métre, par M. le maréchal Vaillant, pages 224-239. Instruction pour les obser-
vations météorologiques des écoles normales, pages 367-390. Lettre de M. le
maréchal Vaillant 4 M. Charles Sainte-Claire Deville, sur les phénoménes baro-
métriques, pages 391-397.
Gardiner, Kev. Fredervc.—On the ice in the Kennebec river, by Rev. Frederic
Gardiner. 3 pages, 8vo. .
102 METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Gay, V. P—Summary of temperature, rain, and cloudiness, for each month
during the years 1864 and 1865, at York Neck, Adams county, Illinois. 1 page,
foolscap. ;
Gesellschaft “ Isis.’—Zusammenstellung der Monats- und Jahresmittel aus
den zu Meissen, 1865, angestellten taglich dreimaligen meteorologischen Beob-
achtungen. Im Auftrage der Gesellschaft Isis. Gebauer. One sheet.
Hough, G. W—Description of an automatic registering and printing baro-
meter. By G. W. Hough, A. M., director of the Dudley observatory. 22
pages, 8vo.
Huntington, Z., C. Z. Huntington —(See William Brayton.)
Hyde, Gustavus A.—Summary of observations at Cleveland, Ohio, for the
year 1865, and for a period of ten years.
Hydrographischen Anstalt der kaiserlich-kéniglichen Marine—Reise der
ésterreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde, in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859,
unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wiillerstorf-Urbair. Nautisch-phy-
sicalischer Theil, III. (letzte) Abtheilung. Meteorologisches Tagebuch. Mit
22 beigebundenen lithographirten Courskartchen, und einer verbesserten Auflage
des Planes No. II. (Mittheilungen der hydrographischen Anstalt der k. k. Marine,
I. Band, 3 [letztes] Heft.) Vienna, 1865. 4to, 386 pages. [The observations
were taken according to the directions published by the maritime conference
held at Brussels in 1853, for devising a uniform system of meteorological
observations at sea.
Ingalsbe, Grenville M.—A list of trees and plants in blossom in the Central
Park, New York city, on the first day of May, 1865, copied from an authentic
source. Observations upon periodical -phenomena in plants and animals from
1860 to 1865, inclusive, by Grenville M. Ingalsbe, South Hartford, Washington
county, New York.
Ives, William—Monthly and annual summary of observations kept for the
Young Men’s Association at Buffalo, New York, during the year 1865.
Kaiserlich Kiniglich Sternwarte—Magnetische und meteorologische Beob-
achtungen zu Prag. Auf dffentliche Kosten herausgegeben von Dr. Jos.G. Bohm,
Director, und Dr. Moritz Allé, Adjunct, der kaiserlich kéniglich Sternwarte.
Fiinfundzwanzigster Jahrgang: vom 1. Januar bis 31. December, 1864. Prag,
1865. 4to, 154 pages.
Kaiserliche Leopoldino-Carolinische deutsche Academie der Naturforscher.—
Die jabrliche, periodische Aenderung des atmosphirischen Ozons, und die ozono-
skopische Windrose als Ergebniss der Beobachtungen zu Emden von 1857 bis
1864. Von Dr. M. A. F. Prestel, M.d. K. L.-C.d. A. Mit drei Figuren. Ein-
gegangen bei der Akademie am 13. Marz, 1865. Dresden, 1865. 4to, 141 pages.
Konnklyk Nederlandsch Meteorologisch Instituut —Meteorologische Waar-
nemingen in Nederland en zijne bezittingen, en Afwijkingen van temperatuur en
barometerstand op vele plaatsen in Europa. Uitgegeven door het Koninklijk
Nederlandsch Meteorologisch Instituut, 1864. Utrecht, 1865. Oblong folio,
304 pages.
Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademien—Meteorologiska Jakttagelser i Sve-
rige utgifna af Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademien anstiillda och bearbetade
under inseende af Er. Edlund. Femte bandet, 1863. Stockholm, 1865. Ob-
long folio, 180 pages. ,
Lapham, I. A., LL. D—A table showing the monthly and yearly amount of
rain at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the years 1841 to 1865, inclusive, except 1842
and 1853, prepared for the Daily Wisconsin; the years 1843-1848, by E. 8.
Marsh, M. D.; 1855-1859, by Charles Winkler, M. D.; and the other years by
I. A. Lapham, LL. D. Newspaper slip.
Leipziger Universitdts Sternwarte—Resultate aus den meteorologisehen Beob-
achtungen angestellt an mehreren Orten im K6nigreich Sachsen in den Jahren
1848 bis 1863, und an den zweiundzwanzig Kénigl. Sachsischen Stationen im
METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 103
Jahre 1864. Nach den monatlichen Zusammenstellungen im Statistischen
Bureau des Kéniglichen Ministerium des Innern bearbeitet von Dr. C. Bruhns,
Director der Sternwarte und Professor der Astronomie in Leipzig. Lrster
Jahrgang. Leipzig, 1866. 4to, 152 pages.
Meteorologische Beobachtungen angestellt auf der Leipziger
Universitiits-Sternwarte von 1860 bis 1863. Herausgegeben von Professor Dr.
C. Bruhns, Director der Sternwarte. Mit drei graphischen Darstellungen der
Beobachtungen von G. Schreiber. (Separatabdruck aus dem vierten Jahres-
bericht des Vereins der Freunde der Erdkunde zu Leipzig.) Leipzig, 1865.
Svo, 170 pages.
Logan, Thomas M., M. D.—Report on the climate of California, with a
comparative table of observations at various stations in the Pacific States. By
Thomas M. Logan, M. D., meteorologist to the Board of Agriculture. Printed
slips from the Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society for the
years 1864 and 1865.
Lische, Dr. Gustav Eduard.—Meteorologische Abhandlungen von Dr. Gustav
Eduard Lische, Professor der Physik am Kénigl. Polytechnikum zu Dresden.
I. Ueber periodische Verainderungen des Windes an der Erdoberfliche, nach
Beobachtungen zu Dresden von 1853 bis 1858. Mit 1 lithographirten Tafel.
Dresden, 1865. 8vo, 205 pages.
Lyman, Henry M., M. D.—Observations of the thermometer at sunrise, 9 a.
m., 2 p.m., and 9 p. m., and notes of the weather, kept at Hilo, Hawaii, from
June 14, 1852, to June 22, 1853. One small manuscript book.
Macgregor, Charles John, M. A—Abstract of meteorological observations
for the years 1861 and 1862, taken at Stratford, Canada West. 5 pages, 8vo.
Matzenauer, Engelbert —Erdmagnetismus und Nordlicht. Ein Versuch ihren
Zusammenhang mit Zugrundelegung der B. T. Meissner’schen Wiirmelehre zu
erkliren. Bearbeitet von Enge!bert Matzenauer, k. k. 'Telegraphen-Inspector in
Innsbruck. Zweite vermehrte Auflage. Innsbruck, 1861. 8vo. 31 pages.
Matzenauer, Engelbert_—Planeten, Monde, und Meteore. Nachtrag zu der
Brochure; Vortrag iiber Kometen und Sonnenlicht, von Engelbert Matzenauer,
k. k. Telegrafen-Directionsrath, Vienna, 1865. 8vo., 15 pages.
May, R. L.—One small manuscript volume, containing notes of the weather
and state of the thermometer, kept at Reading, Pennsylvania, by John H. Raser,
during the years 1857 to 1863.
Meteorological Society—Proceedings of the Meteorological Society; pub-
lished monthly, London. 8vo.
Meteorological Society of Mauritius —Transactions of the Society, volume 4,
1854, 70 pages, 8vo.; volume 5, 1861, 220 pages, 8vo.; volume 6, 1864, 260
pages, Svo. Proceedings of the Society, 1861, 22 pages, Svo.; 1862, 46 pages,
8vo. Observations taken at the Meteorological Observatory, Port Louis, Mau-
ritius, in 1862, 7 pages, folio; in 1864, 9 pages, folio.
Monnet, P. AA—Nouveau Procédé potr étudier |’ Electricité atmospherique.
Par Monnet, P.-A., employé au télégraphe, membre de la Société industrielles
de Lyon, de |’ Association scientifique de France. S8vo., 12 pages, and plate.
Morris, Prof. Oran W.—Comparative view of the temperature for the month
of July for the years 1854 to 1865, inclusive, showing the maximum and
minimum temperature at 7 a.m., 2 p.m., and 9 p. m. of the month, with the
mean temperature of the month for each of the years, at the Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb in the city of New York.
Comparison of the weather for the first. six months of the years 1855 and
1865, including the means of the barometer and thermometer with the maximum
and minimum; the quantity of rain and melted snow, and the difference between
the two years. Also the mean monthly temperature, with the ‘quantity of rain,
&c., for each of the years from 1855 to 1865, inclusive; the total mean for the
six months for those years, and the warmest and coldest of the different months
¢
104 METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
for the years named, at the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in the city of
New York.
Mihry, Adolf, M. D.—Supplement zur klimatographischen Uebersicht der
Erde. Mit einem Appendix enhaltend untersuchungen ueber das Wind system
und eine kartliche Darstellung des Systems der Erd-meteoration. Von Adolf
Miihry, M. D., Verfasser Von “Allgemeine Geographische Meteorologie,”
“« Beitrage zur Geo-Physik,” u. a. Hierbei 2 Karten in Steindrtck und 6 Kart-
chen in Holtzschnitt. Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1865. 8vo., 320 sass
Minchen, komgliche Sternwarte—Wochenberichte No. 12, vom 17 Septem-
ber bis 23 September, 1865: I. Meteorologische Beobachtungen; Il. Magnet-
ische Variations Beobachtungen. 4to. 4 pages.
Navy Department—Mouthly registers from the naval hospitals at Chelsea,
New York, Philadelphia, and Portsmouth.
Newton, H. A.—TYhe determination of the height of auroral arches from ob-
servations at one place. By H. A. Newton. 4 pages, 8vo. [From the American
Journal of Science, May, 1865.]
New York Skating Club.—Report of the meteorologist of the New York
Skating Club for the season 1864-’65. New York, 1866. 16 mo., 32 pages.
Obscrvatario magnitico y meteorologico del Real Colegio de Belen de la Com-
pania de‘ Jesus en la Habana.—Monthly bulletins of observations. 8vo.
Observatoire Physique Central de Russie —Annales de l’Observatoire Physi-
que Central de Russie, publi¢es par ordre de sa Majesté Impériale, sous les
auspices de S. Exc. M. de Reutern, dirigeant la Ministére des Finances et chef
du Corps des Ingénieurs des Mines, par A. T. Kupffer, Directeur de l’Observa-
toire Physique Central. Année 1862. St. Pétersbourg, 1865. 4to, 955 pages.
[This volume contains meteorological observations during the year 1862 at nine
stations in Russia; also, in a supplement, observations at Glasof and Ourjoum
for the years 1853 to 1863, inclusive. |
Correspondence Météorologique publication annuelle de Administration des
Mines de Russie, rédigée par A.'T. Kupffer, Directeur de l’Observatoire Physique
de Russie et membre de l’Académie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg. Année
1863. St. Petersbourg, 1865. 4to, 126 pages. [This volume contains meteoro-
logical observations for the year 1863, at twenty-five stations in Russia; also,
in a supplement: I. Meteorological results for the year 1863, obtained at Tiflis,
the capital city of Georgia, in “Asiatic Russia, arranged i in three tables, viz: a,
hours at which the maximum and minimum temperature, barometric pressure,
force of vapor, and humidity, occurred on each day, with face of the sky, wind,
&e.; 6, hourly variations of thermometer, barometer, force of vapor, and hu-
midity ; ¢, monthly maxima and minima, means of maxima and minima of each
day, and daily variations of meteorological elements. II. Daily extremes of
atmospheric pressure, force of vapor, and relative humidity at Tiflis in the year
1863. III. Means of observations made in the Caucasian provinces for each
month, season, and the year, of the twelve months from December, 1862, to
November, 1863, inclusive. IV. Daily meteorological observations at Chaco-
date, in Japan, from January to May, 1863, inclusive, with means of the period
from January, 1859, to May, 1863, inclusive. V. Meteorological Journal at
Blagoweschtchensk, on the Amoor, by Dr. Holtermann, for January, Fe ebruary,
and March, 1862. VI. Meteorological observations at Wardo, an island in the
Arctic ocean, on the coast of Finmase Norway, for the year 1864, by M.
Skanne, royal Russian vice-consul.|
Paine, Horace M., M. D—Summary of observations for the year 1865 at
Albany, New York, on two large sheets.
Plantamour, E.—Recherches sur la distribution de la temperature a la sur-
face de la Suisse pendant V’hiver 1863-64, par E. Plantamour, professeur.
Mémoire lu aA la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles dans sa Séance a
Zurich, le 23 Aott, 1864. 8v0., 46 pages.
METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 105
3 :
Résumé meteorologique de l’année 1864, pour Genéve et le Grand St. Ber-
nard, par E, Plantamour, Professeur. Tiré de la Bibliothéque Universelle de
Genéve, Aott, 1865. Geneve, 1865. S8vo., 144 pages.
* Prestel, Dr. M. A. F’.—Die jihrliche und tagliche Periode in der Aenderung
der Windesrichtungen uber der deutshen Nordseekiiste, sowie der Winde an den
Kiisten des rigaischen und finnischen Meerbusens und des weissen Meeres.
Von Dr. M. A. F. Prestel, M.d., K. L. 0. D. A. D. N. Mit zwei Figuren.
Hingegangen bei der Akademie den 1. September, 1863. Besonderer Abdruck
aus Band XXX, der Verhandlungen der K. L.-C.’d. A. Dresden, 1864. 4to.
46 pages.
Die Aenderung des Wasserstandes der Fltisse und Stréme in der jahrlichen
Periode, als der jahrlichen periodischen Bu-und Abnahme des atmosphirischen
Niederschlags und Verdunstung genau entsprechend, en Beobachtungen nach-
gewiesen von Dr. M. A. F. Prestel in Emden. Extra-Abdruck aus der Zeit-
schrift des Architecten- und Ingenieur- Vereins fiir des Kinigreich Hannover.
Hannover, 1865. 4to, 7 pages.
Raser, John H.—See R. L. May.
* Rogers, F. M—Register of temperature and times of rain during the first
twenty-four days of March, 1865, at Virgin bay, Nicaragua. :
Royal Society, London—Greenwich magnetical and meteorological observa-
. tions for the year 1863. Quarto, 320 pages. 4
Sartorius, Charles—Summary of observations for the year 1865, at Mira-
dor, Mexico. ,
Schweizerisch Meteorologisch Commission—Bericht iiber die organisation
meteorologischer Beobachtungen in der Schweiz, August, 1864. 8vo., 120 pages.
Scottish Meteorological Society —Journal of the Scottish Meteorological So-
ciety for the year 1865, published quarterly.
Societe Metéorologique de France-—Aunuaire, 1865.
Spaulding, S. C—Temperature at sunrise and noon, also notes of the
weather during the day, observed at South Pass, Union county, Lllinois, from
December, 1862, to December, 1864, inclusive.
Trembly, J. B., M. D—Annual meteorological synopsis for the year 1865 of
observations made at Toledo, Ohio. Pamphlet, 12 pages, 8vo.
Valentine, John—Summary of observations for the year 1865, near Rich-
mond, Indiana. Also a table showing the depth of water which fell in each
month and year from January, 1852, to September, 1865, inclusive.
Victoria, Government of —Results of the meteorological observations taken
in the colony of Victoria during the years 1859 and 1862, and of the nautical
observations collected and discussed at the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne,
during the years 1858 and 1862. George Neumayer, director of the Melbourne
Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne, Australia, 1864. 4to, 392 pages of text and
49 pages of diagrams. Appended to the above are meteorological tables for the
north and south Atlantic and the southern Indian ocean, 81 pages.
— Wabur, Benjamin F—Summary of observations for the year 1865, at West
Waterville, Maine. Newspaper slip.
Whitehead, William A.—Summary of observations for the year 1865, at
Newark, New Jersey. Newspaper slip.
Wilson, Rev. W. D.—A table exhibiting the average temperature at Geneva, -
New York, for each week in the year, together with the greatest heat and the
greatest cold that has been known in that week, during the fifteen years ending
December, 1865." Also a table exhibiting the average temperature for each
month, with the hottest and coldest days in each month, together with the aver-
“age amount of water-fall for each month, and the average number of days on
which water falls. Newspaper slip.
Wanepissiogee Lake Cotton and Woollen Manufacturing Company.—Depth
of rain and melted snow collected in the rain-gauge kept by the company at the
a
106 METEOROLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
x *
outlet of Lake Winnepissiogee, in the town of Laconia, New Hampshire; also
depth of rain and melted snow colkected in the gauge at Lake Village, New Hamp-
shire, about four miles south, on the same stream of water, for the year 1864.
Wolf, Professor Dr. Rudolf—Schweizerische meteorologische Beobactungeh
herausgegeben von der meteorologischen Centralanstalt der schweizerischen
naturforschenden Gesellschaft unter Direktion von Professor Dr. Rudolf Wolf.
Zurich. 4to, Sept., 1864—Feb., 1865.
* Unknown.—Summary of temperature and rain at Pennsylvania Hospital,
Philadelphia, for each month in 1864 and 1865; also average of each month
for twenty-six years. Newspaper slips from North American and United States
Gazette.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
The Executive Committee respectfully submit to the Board of Regents the
following report of the receipts and expenditures of the Smithsonian Institution
during the year 1865:
RECEIPTS.
The whole amount of Smithson’s bequest deposited in the treasury
of the United States is $515,169, from which an annual income
Sie uer Celt. Is. GELLVed, Of 5-1. \2r J aera) 6 © << on) a cine t=
The extra fund of unexpended income is invested as follows:
$75,000 in Indiana 5 per cent. bonds, yielding in 1865 ........
$53,500 in Virginia 6 per cent. bonds, yielding in 1865. .......
$12,000 in Tennessee 6 per cent. bonds, yielding in 1865. .....
$500 in Georgia 6 per cent. bonds, yielding in 1865....-......
$100 in Washington 6 per cent. bonds, yielding in 1865 $6, (but
not collected.)
Premium for sale of coin received as interest from the United
RULER tafe tahpeee otaa Mes Arayer oohcl o-0/<) «<i. «ape eM ine aac al ain =o
Interest on temporary deposits with the United States Treasurer.
intake receipts during 1865. « ... «ereciemeieinisissa = sis <i> -\-
Balance in hands of the treasurer January, 1865...-...
EXPENDITURES.
Mor building and tirnitire’s.. 2... 24. 22cscnes $39, 121 77
Oe Menem ex Penses:.- 2.2... <\-- +... 2-6 seen. 14,149 82
* For publications and researches ............--- 9,528 03
For library, museum, and gallery of art-........ 8,438 12
Balance in the hands of the treasurer January, 1866. --.
$30,910 14
3,700 00
ee
cece eee wee e
135, 713 65
STATEMENT IN DETAIL OF THE EXPENDITURES DURING 1865.
Building :
Reconstruction and incidentals ............-... $37,930 71
Peemiure and HxUTCS .g.i- <2 2 2 = 6 ole tsten ion = T1191 06
General expenses :
Meetings of the board, (hack-hire, &c.)......... 123 64
PiseiMeam Meat . 2.2). 2 2 5. - seas eae. 1,207 95
LEO TD D3, = Se a ee ee 568 61
Transportation, general, (freights) res foc 1,084 13
Exchanges, (books sent and received to institu-
tions, expenses of agents, &c.) ......---..--. 1, 453 63
$39, 121 77
108
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Stantonery ste)6c!2i2'2/. Tos eres ae eit eae ee hate eee 539 O01
General printing, (circulars, labels, &c.) .-...--. 270 00
Apparatys:2is ek ake oe Se ae ees See eee 2 50
Laboratory, (chemicals, fixtures, glass, &c)...... 135 26
Incidentals, general, (hardware, tools, materials for ~
cleaning, packing twine, general repairs, &c.).. . 1,683 89
Pixizanelerk-hire; (copying) \-\> cca. - oe ne 273 20
Salaries, (Secretary, chief clerk, book-keeper, mes-
senger, watchmen, and laborers)............. 6, 808 00
Publications :
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge ....--.- 5,651 18
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections....-.-..---- Pats) SA
Smithsonian reports ....... RRs ris os S45 A 728 00
Other publications ge ss s,- -m- «= ea ce eee 207 51
Meteorolocy eeepc site tects. - -/\cio oie quboeon 827 50
Library and museum :
COstomMbooise mene ce. =... =. ot eae cen eet 611 86
ABsistanismuraAtys. 6 se ee chen 1,300 00
Transportation for library, (freights) ........--. 100 00
Museum, salary of assistant secretary, and assist-
RUS eM TUS OUI Sic oct eye ce lave s = oes ht ees 4,774 14
Incidentals for museum, (alcohol, mounting speci-
RENE OCC Ho ee Cen oe oreo) a eferace sin ye eee 954 12
Transportation for museum, (freights).......-.-- 500 00
Gallery of art, (engravings, frames, &c.) .... .... 198 00
.
14,149 82
9,528 03
8,438 12
71, 237 74
The foregoing statement shows the expenditure during the year, and the bal-
ance in the hands of the treasurer.
The receipts, however, did not actually
come into the hands of the treasurer in full from the government until the 11th
of January, 1866, although credited for 1865.
In accordance with the decision of the Solicitor of the Treasury, the interest .
on the Smithsonian fund, due 1st of January and Ist of July, 1865, and the 1st
of January, 1866, was paid by the Secretary of the Treasury in coin, which,
being sold at the current prices, yielded the following sums, viz:
1865.
April 28. Sale of $15,455 07, at 482, yielded ...-. $7,534 34
Less brokerage and United States tax..- 61 64
Aug. 8. Sale of $15,455 07, at 434, yielded ..... 6,722 96
Less brokerage and United ‘States tax... 60 82
1866.
Jan. 31. Sale of $15,455 07, at 404, yielded ..... 6,259 30
Less brokerage and United States tax. - - 60 365
$7,472 70
6,662 14
6,198 95
20, 333 79
———
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. , 809
This sum is placed among the receipts for the past year, which, together with
the balance in the hands of the treasurer at the end of the previous year, made
the total available funds $84,956 37 for the year 1865.
The incidental expenses and the cost of the care of the museum are nearly
the same as in 1864, but in the previous year $4,000 were received from Con-
gress to defray the expenses, in part, of the care of the government collections
of the exploring expeditions, while, owing to the failure of the appropriation bill,
but $2,000 were received for this purpose during 1865.
The great expenditure, therefore, of the year has been on account of the
building, the particulars of which will be given in the report of the building
committee.
The appropriation received for the preservation of the collections of the
exploring expedition of the United States, has been expended, as heretofore,
under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in assisting to pay the
expenses of extra employés in the museum, and the cost of arranging and pre-
serving the articles. ‘Che specimens intrusted to the care of the Institution by
government are in a good condition, and the distribution of duplicates to other
museums has been continued during the year.
From the examination made by the committee it appears that, notwithstand-
ing the loss and inconvenience in consequence of the fire, the operations of the
establishment have been continued with unabated energy, and that especially
the foreign correspondence and exchanges have been increased rather than
diminished during the past year. ;
It appears from the statement of the Secretary, and the aecounts rendered by
Riges & Co., bankers of the Institution, that the remainder of the legacy of
Smithson, which amounted to $26,210 63 in gold, was sold at a premium from
1045 to 1074 per cent., yielding, after deducting the cost of sale and United
States tax, $54,165 38. This amount was expended in the purchase of United
States bonds bearing 7;%, per cent. interest at par. ‘The following is a detailed
statement of the whole transaction :
1864.
June 11. The amount received from Fladgate, Clarke & Finch,
attorneys, London, as the residuary legacy of James oe $s. de
SUITS SAR WAR ore corso S 6 42 eRe U's eo wc wale i, B62 (0) S
This amount was deposited with George Peabody & Co.,
bankers, London, who allowed interest on it to the 5th
Pay ads TCG) Tips MINS ak 2) 6 a 153 19°4
0; 4190. 19) 7
This amount was equivalent to $26,210 63 in gold, which was sold by Riggs
& Co., under*the direction of the Secretary of the Institution, as follows:
$10,000 00 at POM eter Tels win = c-6 2 Saeerere $20, '725 00
15,000 OO at 2064 Ep re ae a eae 2 to aetopreetaete sieOsle lo
OOOO OMat oO te ctoste) ae 6 he 2,070 00
POKOS. at ZOOS 22.2. MW aeehi tho: Son slate ee ASIA79
26, 210 63 54, 258 04
‘Less brokerage, +....... $65 53
Less United States tax, 54 YO 13
Net amount realized from sale of gold.......-.- $54,155 38
110 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
1865.
February 17. United States bonds bearing 7,3, per cent. interest
were purchased at par for....... See sere ae 54,150 00
Balance, which could not be invested on account of
there being no bonds for less than $50......-. 15 38
After the Secretary had purchased these bonds and deposited them for safe- .
keeping with the 'l'reasurer of the United States, it was claimed by the Secretary
of the Treasury that this money was not under the control of the Regents of the
Institution, inasmuch as the original act of Congress of 1846, establishing the
Institution, referred to only so much of the bequest of Smithson as was then in
the treasury of the United States, and that a special act of Congress would be
required to apply this money, or the interest on it, to the uses of the Institution.
The Executive Committee would therefore recommend that an application be
made to Congress for such a disposition of this money.
It is impossible to make at this time an exact estimate of expenditures for the
year 1866. The committee would therefore recommend that $34,660, the reg-
ular income of the Institution, be devoted to the maintenance and current ex-
penses of the operations of the establishment, and that the $13,724 63, balance
in the hands of the treasurer on the 1st January, 1866, together with the pre-
miums which may be received for the sale of coin, be applied to the reconstruc-
tion of the building.
The committee have carefully examined the accounts of the treasurer, and the
books as posted by Mr. Randolph for the past year, and find them to be correct.
In conclusion, it appears that the entire bequest of Smithson remains undi-
minished in the treasury of the United States, and that all the expenditures,
from the organization of the establishment to the present time, have been made
exclusively from the interest of the original sum, and from the income on ac-
crued interest invested in State stocks.
Respectfully submitted.
RICHARD WALLACH,
RICHARD DELAFIELD,
. Executive Committee.
WASHINGTON, March, 1866,
REPORT OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE,
. It has been stated to the Board that the fire which occurred on the 24th of
January, 1865, destroyed the roof and all the interior of the upper story of the
main building, the interior of the two large north towers, and also of the large
south tower.
The first step toward the reconstruction of the building was to secure the
services of a competent person as architect and engineer to prepare plans and
superintend the work. For this purpose Mr. Adolph Cluss, who had designed
and directed the building of the principal school-houses of the city, was em-
ployed. |
The next thing to be done was the making of a critical survey to ascertain
the actual state of the walls, and to determige what parts it was necessary first
to rebuild. This survey forced upon the committee the conviction that the
original construction of the building, as a whole, was very defective, and, in
many respects, unsuited as a receptacle of records and other valuable articles,
the loss of which could never be repaired. The exterior of all the walls. con-
‘sists of a facing of red sandstone, bound to an irregular backing of bluestone
of very bad workmanship. In the main building, and in the lower portion of
the large south tower, was inserted a four-inch brick lining, separated by an air |
space from the main walls. This lining is not bound to the walls, and, there-
fore, does not add to their strength. It is merely a furring, intended to pre-
vent dampness by the condensation of moisture from the atmosphere. This
furring is open:at the top, and it was into this that the stove-pipe was inserted
which led to the accident by fire. In all the other rooms of the towers the
plastering was upon the rough rubble work.
The heavy projecting cornice of the south tower was merely set in place
without fastening, and, consequently could not withstand any disturbing action.
The parts of the building which were not injured by fire, namely, the two
wings and connecting ranges, as far as the committee have had the opportunity
of examining, are defective in materials and construction. The floors, in some
cases, though covered with flagging and filled in with deafening, rest upon
beams of pine wood, which is decayed, and in the course of a few years the
interior of these parts will require renewal.
It is proper to state that the foregoing remarks on the character of the mate-
rials, and the construction of the building, are not applicable to the work on
the main edifice, subsequently executed under the superintendence of Captain
(now General) B. S. Alexander, of the United States engineers. This work, -
which principally consisted in the arching of the basement and main story of
the upper building, was executed in fire-proof materials, and prevented the ex-
tension of the fire, and, consequently, the destruction of the entire edifice and
all its contents.
From the foregoing account of the original construction of the building, it
will not be surprising that the effect of the fire was found to be much more
serious than previous to this survey it had been supposed, and that the work to
be done could not be confined to the mere repairing of the injury caused by the
fire, but would include also the rebuilding of a considerable part of the edifice;
and this was particularly the case on account of the decision of the Board that
the-restoration should be in all parts indestructible by fire.
112 REPORT OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE.
The heavy projecting cornice of the south tower had fallen down, in part,
and the remainder was unfit to receive a new roof.
The high brick columns, extending from the cellar to the eayes of the main
building, and supporting the northern wall of the south tower, were so much
damaged by the fire as to require to be removed, and, consequently, with them
the above-mentioned wall itself. The lining of the upper story of the main
building was also so much injured that the greater portion of this will require
renewal. But the most instable portion of the building, and that which gave
rise to most anxiety, was the principal northern tower. ‘This, which is one hun-
dred and forty feet high, starts from a square base, and is gradually transformed -
into a regular octagon of smaller dimensions. Tour sides of this octagon rest
upon the sides of the original square, but project into the interior, while its
other four sides extend diagonally across the angles of the square, and are sup-
ported by rough and impertect corbel work, consisting of masses of bluestone
very seriously affected by the fire. ‘The tower was originally divided intu a
series of stories by transverse wooden beams and plank floors, which were en-
tirely destroyed. The anxiety in regard to this tower was increased by ob-
serving a vertical crack extending a considerable portion of the height of the
tower, but whether this had previously been produced by unequal settling, and
had merely been increased by the unequal expansion of the exterior and inte-
rior walls, due to the fire, or entirely produced by the latter cause, could not be
definitely ascertained. As this part of the building imperatively demanded im-
mediate care, the architect was directed to give it his first attention. After a
due consideration of its then present condition and its future use as a receptacle
of heavy articles, it was considered necessary to erect within it a lining of solid
brick-work nine inches thick, laid in cement, from the bottom to the top, firmly
united to the original wall, and serving as the support to iron beams of the brick
floors. And, furthermore, it was concluded to fill up, in brick-work, a number
of the high, narrow windows in each story, which would add to the strength of
the structure without affecting externally its architectural appearance.
A similar construction was directed in the other principal north tower, and
the work in both has been executed in such a manner as to give assurance that
these parts of the building will not merely be restored, but will also be rendered
more stable than they were before the conflagration. The crack above men-
tioned has been found, by the undisturbed condition of a thin stratum of plaster
placed over it, to have remained the same, and the walls, for several months
previous and during the winter, have not undergone any perceptible change.
While the work immediately required for the safety of the front towers was
in progress, plans were discussed and prepared for the interior of these as well
as for that of the south tower, with a view to their better adaptation to the
wants of the establishment.
The original plan of the building included four principal staircases leading to
the upper story of the edifice, one on each side of the north entrance, and a
similar arrangement on the right and another on the left of the south entrance.
As these occupied a large portion of useful space, it was thought best to increase
the size of those at the north entrance, dispense with those on the southern, and
so arrange the heights of the stories of all the towers as to render them more
available for the business operations of the establishment.
The work which has been done on the southern tower consists in the removal
of the north wall and a considerable part of the upper portion of the other
three walls; the preparation of a part of the freestone, from which to reconstruct
the exterior wall; the greater portion of the brick-work of the basement, and
the furnishing of the cast-iron columns intended to replace the brick piers which
supported the northern wall of this tower.
Immediately after the fire, measures were taken by the Secretary to secure
the property from the weather by a temporary roof over the main building, and
REPORT OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE. 113
this was effected through the kind assistance of the Hon. E. M. Stanton, Seere-
‘tary of War, who authorized General Meigs, Quartermaster General, to con-
struct, under the direction of General Rucker, the covering required, though at
the expense of the Institution. The work was executed, during the most in-
clement period of the year, in the short space of two days. ‘This temporary
roof, covered with felt saturated with tar, has served the purpose intended. It
will, however, rapidly deteriorate, and, consequently, the first object of the
committee, during the coming season, will be to decide on the character of the
roof, and to hasten its completion as rapidly as the work ean properly be ac-
complished.
In the restoration of the building the committee have been governed by the
following considerations
1st. To render the work entirely stable, both in regard to material and mode
of construction.
2d. To render it thoroughly fire-proof.
3d. In view of the great cost at present of material and workmanship, and
the condition of the funds of the Institution, at first to do such work as should
be necessary to preserve the stability of the several parts of the building, and
prevent injury to the property by the weather.
The following is a detailed account of the expenditures on the building up to
the close of the operations for the winter. It includes not only the items of
expenditure immediately connected with the reconstruction, but also those
which were necessary as preliminaries in the security of the property and the
temporary repair of such parts as could not be deferred :
Expenditures on the Smithsonian building from January, 1865, to April, 1866.
PRELIMINARY WORK AND CURRENT EXPENSES.
Pay of laborers removing debris after the fire, taking
down walls, and general cleaning up...........--- $1,055 29
Temporary roof, constructed under direction of Quarter-
IDE 4, SIVEET REUTERS RN Bt lpn HS ele le Sa 1,974 25
ey Or carpenters—repals <.-... 2... 2s oe oe eee 254 75
rere PE RCUEDN A costae Slate wise 2 o's + ao owe wm ie 28 25
TEAGUE SET Za CaS act Sti Oe 121 95
«Fo LP TUL CRS SER eee oe ele 98 00
(LAS (CL gP RATT RS RSENS 544 50
Belonigols, and. nardwate-. 2... ....------.c snes e 849 33
Water and gas pipes, new plugs, extensions, and repairs 1,569 44
Tin work, new roof on tower, and repairs. .-....-..- 256 20 —
Repairs to felt roof, and miscellaneous items........- 93 92
Sea 6,845 88
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING.
Tron work, beams, doors, frames, &c........--.0.--- 9,052 22
a San en Ps Pe 400 00
Hard brick (240,333, at SIO) asthe hak =< ids) eer 3,605 00
PE tempedsemci (32,200,.ab $23)... - 2.0. 42 sae eee 740 60
RN Rag TEP Pee as aiid she = wien. 0 ahtedeeranne 2,185 84
RTE R Ma ATE CES iehcie 28-65 a0e) ain a 2. ore 0 'a'= ore emails Ses L,436.52
aN eee aN ele 5 odie. cp.nlaicie.e «sae os as.claerews 546 05
Na I hie oe cane ne 6 oe SSeS ore 12 64
- Hardware, nails, steel, iron clamps, tools, &c..-.<.:.- 632 82
mopenblocks; anduderricks:. «.\. <<)... s<seeea<-- 135 95
Blacksmiths’ coal ........- 11 URE eere we eY Bee 2 18 00
8s ;
114 REPORT OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE.
Ups kel iy eps cee ee te ete 6,066 86
Stonecutters= se. esse SOV Ue Yee ee eee ae 6,609 29
Carpenters and laborers. +/|: 2-22 -ee eee eee 4,464 35
iplsckamitheiee 2-6 22-2 2's en ee eee 465 37
Risers 2-4: Jos db eee ee eee eee oe A75 75
LED Testy) 6 AS AS ee Ba 3 Be et ee 46 00
PAPEMULCE = 2. <)-'-'. - Doe eee eee ei 220 Soares 925 00
ieee, and: haylingy: ~ een oe oe eenelet = . 822 82
38, 641 08
*$45, 486 96
The following are the estimates of the architect for the work to be completed
as tar as possible during the present year 3
1st. To finish the floor, ceiling, and walls of the northern vestibule or prin-
cipal entrance to the main building, and doors from this into rooms in the two
towers, one on each side; also to put sashes in the tower windows and openings,
further to roof in main tower, and space between the two front towers; also to
finish the space occupied by main stairs, $8,000.
2d. For iron work and necessary masonry for the principal staircases and
doors into rooms and apartments from the lower hall, about $6,500.
3d. For roofing the main building, $17,500.
4th. For the masonry of the south tower, so far as the completion of the en-
closure, and for roofing the same, $9,600.
Respectfully submitted.
RICHARD DELAFIELD,
RICHARD WALLACH,
JOSEPH HENRY,
Building Committee.
WASHINGTON, April 28, 1866.
* The difference between this sum and that given in the report of the Exeeutive Committee
is due to the difference of the dates of the two accounts.
JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS
OF
mo BOARD OF REGENTS,
» WASHINGTON, January 17, 1866.
In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution, fixing the time of beginning of their annual session on the third
Wednesday of January in each year, a meeting was called for this day.
No quorum being present, the Board adjourned to meet on Saturday, Feb-
ruary 3, 1866.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1866.
A meeting of the Board of Regents was held at 12 m. in the laboratory of the
Smithsonian Institution.
Present: Hon. L. F. S.Foster, Vice-President of the United States, Hon. Garret
Davis, Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. J. W. Patterson, Hon. J. A. Garfield,
Hon. J. F. Farnsworth, General Richard Delafield, Hon. Richard Wallach, and
Professor Henry, Secretary.
Mr. Foster was called to the chair.
The Secretary stated that since the last annual session the following gentle-
men had been appointed as Regents by the Speaker of the ee of Represen-
tatives :
Hon. J. W. Patterson, of New Hampshire; Hon. J. A. Garfield, of Qhio ;
Hon. J. F. Farnsworth of Illinois.
Mr. Patterson was reappointed a Regent, and Messrs. Garfield and Farnsworth
were appointed to succeed Hon. S. S. Cox and Hon. H. Winter Davis, whose
terms as members from the House of Representatives had expired.
The Secretary gave a general account of the objects and operations *6f “the .
Institution, the nature of the will of Smithson, &c.
General Delafield, from the Executive Committee, presented a report of the
financial condition of the Institution, and gave an account of what had been
done towards the reconstruction of the building.
The Secretary presented a notice from Roswell C. Brainard, esq., surrogate
of the county of Kings, New York, requiring the Smithsonian Insti{ution to
appear at his office, in Brooklyn, New York, on the 19th of March next, at
10 o’clock a. m., to attend the final settlement of the account of Francis Vinton,
as executor of and trustee under the last will and testament of Thomas Wynns,
deceased, of whose estate the Institution is a residuary legatee.
116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS.
On motion of Mr. Davis, it was
Resolved, That the Secretary be authorized to have the Institution represented
at the surrogate’s office, Brooklyn, New York, on the 19th of March next.
The Secretary stated that during the past year the interest on the Smith-
sonian fund in the treasury of the United States had been paid in coin; but
that Chief Justice Chase, Chancellor of the Institution, had recommended that
application be made to the Secretary of'the Treasury for the payment of all
the interest in coin, which for the previous three years had been received in
currency, since he had while Secretary of the Treasury authorized a similar
course in regard to other applications of the same character.
On motion of Mr. Garfield, it was
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Institution be directed to apply to the
Treasury Department for the payment 6f the difference between the interest
actually received in currency during the years 1862, 1863, and 1864, and the
amount in coin to which the Institution was justly entitled.
Mr. Patterson addressed the Board in relation to the great value of the library
of the Institution, and recommended that some action be taken to secure it from
danger of destruction, and advised the placing of it, under proper restrictions, in
the library of Congress.
After remarks by Messrs. Delafield, Garfield, Davis, and Trumbull,
On motion of Mr. Patterson, it was
Resolved, That a committee be appointed, to consist of one Regent from the
Senate, one from the House of Representatives, one resident member, and the
Secretary of the Institution, to confer with the Committee on the Library of
Congress in relation to an arrangement for the removal of the library of the
Smithsonian Institution to the Capitol.
The Chair appointed Mr. Patterson, chairman, and Messrs. Trumbull, Dela-
field, and Professor Henry as the committee.
The Board then adjourned to meet on Saturday, February 17.
WASHINGTON, February 23, 1866.
A meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution was held
this day at 12 m. in the room of the Senate Commiitee on the Judiciary, United
States Capitol.
Present: Hon. L. F. 8. Foster, Vice-President United States, Hons. W. P.
Fessenden, L. Trumbull, and G. Davis, of the United States Senate; Hons.
J. W. Patterson, J. A. Garfield, and J. F. Farnswoith, of the House of
Representatives ; General R. Delafield, Hon. R. Wallach, and Professor Henry,
Secretary.
Mr. Foster took the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and
approved.
The Secretary stated that, in accordance with the instructions of the Board,
he had addressed the following communication to the Secretary of the Treasury
relative to the payment of the interest on the Smithsonian fund in coin; but as
yet had received no answer:
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. i bp al
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
Washington, February 7, 1866.
Sir: I am directed by a resolution of the Board of Regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution, adopted at a meeting on the 3d of February, to make applica-
tion for the repayment in coin of the six instalments of interest on the Smith-
sonian fund for the years 1862, 1863, and 1864.
These payments were made in currency, but it has since been decided by the
legal adviser of the ‘Treasury Department that the Institution was entitled, by
the usages of the government in paying the interest on the permanent debts of
the United States, to receive its interest in coin.
The Board of Regents have been informed by Chief Justice Chase that, when
Secretary of the Treasury, he had made several repayments of this kind, and there-
fore they consider that the Institution is not only in justice entitled to this claim,
but that also a precedent has been established by which it can be readily allowed.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
: JOSEPH HENRY, Secretary.
Hon. H. McCuutocn,
Secretary of the Treasury.
The Secretary stated that Joseph H. Patton, esq., attorney, 112 Broadway,
New York, had kindly consented to attend at the settlement of the account of
the executor of Mr. Wynns, that gentleman having from the beginning been
fully acquainted with all the facts of the bequest.
Mr. Patterson, from the special committee appointed at the last meeting, re-
ported that a conference had been held with the Library Committee of Congress,
and that certain propositions had been discussed relative to the transfer of the
library of the Institution, and he recommended the adoption of the following as
the conditions on the part of the Institution :
1. That the Smithsonian library be deposited in the library of Congress,
subject to reclamation when the Regents may so desire.
2. The public to have access to the library for purposes of consultation every
ordinary week day.
3. The Institution to have the use of its own books as at present, and through
its Secretary to have the use of the library of Congress, under the same regu-
lations as senators and representatives.
4, That the books, maps, charts, &c., of the Smithsonian library be properly
cared for as are those of the library of Congress.
After considerable discussion, in which Messrs. Fessenden, Trumbull, Dela-
field, Patterson, and Farnsworth took part, on motion of Mr. Trumbull the fol-
lowing was adopted as a substitute for the first proposition reported by the
committee.
1. That the library of the Smithsonian Institution be placed on deposit with
the library of Congress, not to be withdrawn except on reimbursement by said
Institution to the United States of the expenses incurred in taking care of said
library, or on such terms and conditions as shall be mutually agreed upon be-
tween the United States and the Regents of the Institution.
On motion of Mr. Patterson, it was
118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS.
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to make the necessary arrange-
ments with the Library Committee of Congress for the proposed transfer.
Mr. Patterson, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Garfield, and Professor Henry were ap-
pointed the committee.
Professor Henry presented his annual report of the operations of the Institu-
tion during 1865, which was read in part.
On motion, the Board adjourned to meet at the call of the Sander
WaAsHINGTON, March 24, 1866.
A meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day in the laboratory of the
Institution, at 74 o’clock p. m.
Present: Chief Justice Chase, Chancellor; Hon. G. Davis, Hon. J. A. Gar-
field, Hon. R. Wallach, General Richard Delafield, and the Secretary, Professor
Henry.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
The Secretary stated that the Secretary of the Treasury had granted the re-
quest made by the Board relative to the payment of the interest in coin on the
Smithsonian fund, in the following manner: The amount which had been paid
to the Institution for six instalments of interest, from January, 1862, to July,
1864, in currency, was repaid into the treasury of the United States by Riggs
& Co., bankers of the Institution, who received in exchange for it the same amount
in coin. ‘This coin was sold immediately in New York, as follows:
March 4866, 4p90; O00 sat 129320 foam iene ale eal (erie tae teeat - $64,875 00
SPA UEC imdb ey se cn o 6 6A COO HAC Oe ea 6,475 00
Si) (30 at L295) ee wnemie eels (are eialaia)arsterarer ate 48,813 73
92, 730 120, 163 73
Less brokerage and tax .......--2/-% 351 98
LO So tlre
The profit, therefore, to the Institution by the change of the currency to coin,
and the sale of the latter, is $27,081 76.
The report of the Executive Committee was presented by the chairman, Mr.
Wallach, and after explanations in detail by Generald Delafield, on motion of
Mr. Davis, was adopted.
General Delafield, chairman of the Building Committee, presented plans and
estimates for the reconstruction of the building.
The subject of the disposition of the money in possession of the Secretary of
the Treasury, resulting from the residuary legacy of Smithson, was next con-
sidered. ‘The Secretary suggested that so much of this sum as was received
from England, independent of the premium on the coin, viz : $26,210 63, should
be added to the amount originally deposited in the treasury of the United
States by Mr. Rush, making $541,379 63 as the total bequest of Smithson, and
that the premium and the interest since accrued be applied to the current uses
of the Institution, and to assist in defraying the cost of the restoration of the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 119
building. By this arrangement the interesting fact could be stated that, after
all the Institution has done in the way of increasing and diffusing knowledge,
the entire sum derived from the bequest of Smithson is still undiminished in the
treasury of the United States.
The Chancellor recommended that the sum thus added to the money now in
the treasury of the United States should be sufficient to make up the amount to
$550,000.
On motion of Mr. Wallach, it was
Resolved, 'That the Secretary be directed to apply to Congress for an act by
which the residuary legacy of James Smithson, now in the possession of the
Secretury of the Treasury, amounting to $26,210 63, be added to the sum
originally received; and that also from the income of the above-mentioned
residuary legacy the further sum of $8,620 387 be added, making the total
amount deposited in the treasury of the United States $550,000 as the trust
fund, the interest on which alone is to be applied to the maintenance and uses
of the Institution ; and further, that the Regents be authorized to apply the re-
mainder of the income of the residuary legacy to the current expenses of the
Institution and the reconstruction of the building.
The Secretary stated that at the last annual session of the Board the disposal
of the State stocks held by the Institution was left to the discretion of the
Chancellor, Secretary, and Executive Committee; it having been found that it
was not necessary, in order to meet the expenditures on the building during the
year, to make a sale, it had been concluded not to dispose of these stocks, it
being thought that the value of those of Virginia and Tennessee would increase,
and that the accumulated interest due would in time be paid.
On motion of Mr. Garfield, it was
Resolved, 'That the Secretary present a statement at the next meeting of the
value of the State stocks held by the Institution.
In the absence of Hon. Mr. Patterson, chairman of the Committee on the
transfer of the Library, the Secretary stated that a bill had been presented in
the House of Representatives by Mr. Patterson, which had been referred to the
Library Committee of Congress, who had reported an act providing for the
transfer of the Smithsonian library on the terms agreed to by the Board at its
last meeting.
The reading of the annual report of the Secretary was then continued.
On motion of Mr. Wallach, the report was accepted.
The Board then adjourned to meet at the call of the Secretary.
WASHINGTON, April 28, 1866.
A meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day, at 11 0’clock a. m., in the
laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution.
Present: Chief Justice Chase, Chancellor; Hon. L. F. 8. Foster, Vice-Pres-
ident United States; Hon. L. Trumbull, Hon. J. W. Patterson, Hon. J. F.
Farnsworth, Hon. R. Wallach, General Richard Delafield, Dr. 'T. D. Woolsey,
and Professor Henry, the Secretary. ;
1210 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS.
Chief Justice Chase, Chancellor, took the chair.
A note from General Garfield, stating the cause of his absence from the mecting,
was read.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
The Seeretary, in accordance with a resolution of the Board at its last meeting,
presented the following statement relative to the present value and original cost
of the State stocks forming the extra fund of the institution :
BS
i 2 hha
Extra fund. en Cah ee Present rate. | Present value.
5D . co D> .
$53, 500 Virginia -...-. 3 93 $49, 832 50 68 $36, 380 00
12,000 Tennessee...--. 94 11,167 50 91 10,920 00
75, 000mIndtanaseeeea =. 84 63, 000 00 85 63,750 00
500 Georgia .----.-- 100 500 00 100 500 00
100 Washington -... 100 100 00 100 100 00
141, 100 | 124, 600 00 111, 650 60
The Secretary presented to the Board the following copy of the act of Con-
gress which had been approved by the President of the United States, April
5, 1866, relative to the Smithsonian library :
[PUBLic—No. 20.]
AN ACT to provide for the transfer of the custody of the library of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion to the library of Congress.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That the library collected by the Smithsonian Institution under the pro-
visions of an act approved August tenth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, shall be removed
from the building of said Institution, with the consent of the Regents thereof, to the new
fire-proof extension of the library of Congress upon completion of a sufficient portion thereor
for its accommodation, and shall while there deposited be subject to the same regulations as
the library of Congress, except as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, 'That when such library shall have been so removed and
deposited, the Smithsonian Tustitution shall have the use thereof in like manner as it is now
used, and the public shall have access thereto for purposes of consultation on every ordinary
week day, except during one month of each year, in the recess of Congress, when it may be
closed for renovation. All the books, maps, and charts of the Smithsonian library shall be-
properly cared for and preserved in like manner as are those of the Congressional library,
from which the Smithsonian library shall not be removed except on reimbursement by the
Smithsonian Institution to the treasury of the United States of expenses incurred in binding
and in taking care of the same, or upon such terms and conditions as shall be mutually ~
agreed upon by Congress and the Regents of said Institution.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Smithsonian Institution, through its Secretary,
shall have the use of the library of ‘Congress, subject to the same regulations as senators and
representatives.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the librarian of Congress shall be authorized to
employ two additional assistants, w ho shall receive a yearly conipensation of eight hundred
dollars and one thousand dollars, respectively, commencing July one, eighteen hundred and
se to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Sec. 5. And be at further enacted, That the sum of five hundred dollars, or so much thereof
as may he necessary, shall be appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise
appropriated, to detray the expenses of the removal herein provided for.
Approved April 5, 1866.
The subject of selling the State stocks forming the extra fund, and of request-
ing Congress to receive the amount on the same terms as the original bequest of
Smithson, was considered.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 17
On motion of Mr. Trumbull, it was
Resolved, That, in addition to the direction given at the last meeting, the
Secretary be instructed to apply to Congress for an act authorizing the Treasurer
of the United States to receive into the treasury on the same terms as the
original bequest, such sums as the Regents may from time to time see fit to de-
posit, not exceeding, with the original bequest, the sum of one million dollars.
On motion of Mr. Patterson, it was
Resolved, That, in case the privilege is granted to increase the capital of the
Institution, the Executive Committee, with the Chancellor-and Secretary,
be authorized to dispose of any or all of the stocks now held by the Institution,
and to deposit the proceeds in the treasury of the United States.
General Delafield presented the report of the Building Committee ; which was
read and adopted.
The Secretary presented a number of communications to illustrate the cor-
respondence of the Institution.
The Board then adjourned to meet at the call of the Secretary.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE INSTITUTION TO ILLUS-
TRATE ITS OPERATIONS, ADDRESSED TO THE SECRETARY, PROFESSOR
JOSEPH HENRY.
From Joseph Leidy, Curator Academy of Natural Sciences.
PHILADELPHIA, May 1, 1866.
Dear Sir: I write in answer to your letter of February 20, in relation to
the donation of shells by the Smithsonian Institution to the Academy of Natural
Sciences. I was obliged to wait until now to give the committee an opportunity
to make out an account of the shells, which account I have just received from
the chairman, Mr. Tryon. He reports as follows:
“The collection of shells recently presented to the Academy of Natural Sci-
ences by the Smithsonian Institution embraces over 1,300 species, of which 793
are new to our collection ; an extraordinary increase, due in great part to the fact
that many of the species are those collected by the Wilkes exploring expe-
dition, (described by Dr. Gould,) never before distributed. There are also a
large number of new species from the west coast of North America, recently de-
scribed by Mr. Carpenter.
“We were indebted to the Smithsonian Institution last fall for a donation of
800 species, including 300 new to our collection, being a first portion of the ex-
pedition shells. Uniting the two donations, we have thus received over 2,100
species, including 1,100 new to us, within six months. The accuracy of the
names and localities renders the collection a valuable addition to our museum.”
From J. Miguel Arroyo, Perpetual Secretary of the Mexican Society of Geog-
raphy and Statistics.
Mexico, March 24, 1865.
EsTEEMED Sir: This society has been highly gratified by the communication
of your note of November last, in which notice is given it of the books which the
Smithsonian Institution has had the goodness to remit. In effect, it has just
received, at: the hands of Sefior D. José Ramon Pacheco, three large boxes con-
taining the said books, which the society, with a high appreciation of the gift,
has ordered to be placed in its library as a valuable addition to the collection
which it already possesses regarding the United States. I shall not forget to
seek, and will very soon send you the “ Registro trimestro,” which you have
had the condescension to inquire for; and begging you to accept for your distin-
guished institution the thanks of this society for the favor conferred, I have the
honor to subscribe myself your obedient servant.
From Jno. Evans, Governor of Colorado Territory.
DeENvrk, July 29,1865.
Dear Sir: The fossil jaw referred to in yours of the 12th instant was pre-
sented to me by Arapahoe Chief ‘ Friday,” who said he found it on Rock ereek,
a tributary of the Republican fork of the Kansas river, about one hundred and
fifty miles nearly due east of this place.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. 123
In September, 1863, I visited that region of country, vainly endeavoring to
get the Indians together in council.
The general character of the country on the head of the Republican, corre-
sponds with other parts of the great plains, in being covered with the buffalo
grass on the clayey soils and bunch grass on the sandy hills.
The valleys along the streams are exceedingly fertile, being covered with tall
grass, rushes, and other growths of luxuriant vegetation common to such locali-
ties in other parts of the country.
On the Whiteman’s fork, Rock creek, and Arickaree fork, I found high bluffs,
bounding rather narrow bottoms, the general surtacé of the country being
slightly rolling on the general level of the bluffs. For some twenty-five or
thirty miles east and west these bluffs show outcrops of a cretaceous limestone,
corresponding with the mauvaises terres north of it.
This region has as yet been but little known. Captain J. C.F rémont crossed
it in 1843, and Lieutenant Bryan, in his explorations for a wagon road from
Fort Riley to Bridger’s pass, in the year 1856, on his return trip, passed down
Rock creek, but they appear to have given the country but a slight examina-
tion, as might be expected on such expeditions. From reports of parties who
have crossed the country south of this region on the dividing ridge between the
waters of the Platte and Arkansas rivers, near the 103° of west longitude, I am
led to believe this cretaceous formation extends for some distance southward
from the place that I visited on the occasion referred to.
It is a mistake to call this region a desert, for throughout my trip across the
region at the head of the Republican, I found it everywhere covered with grass,
furnishing the best of pasturage for stock.
Any further information that I can give will be cheerfully furnished.
From William F. Given, United States Vice-Consul.
MarTINiQuE, St. Pierre, January 6, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to acquaint you with the circumstances attending a
very remarkable electric phenomenon which occurred in this city on the after-
noon of the 23d of November last, while I was absent in the United States.
A heavy temperature, charged with electricity, had for several days pressed
on the town, during which time there had been many and violent showers of
rain. A sudden and heavy shower of rain had just ceased, when there came a
sharp and short detonation like the booming of a cannon, accompanied by a
flash of red light, and followed by the smell of burnt powder. At the same in-
stavt cries were heard from a house in the principal street, the north end of
which had been struck by the lightning. On this end of the house there was
a projection, which was shattered, and the rubbles and tiles were almost
symmetrically thrown across the street. The fluid then passed along the houses
to the right, and down the front of one of these to a distance some two or three
feet below the level of the pavement; then passing outwardly, without in any
manner deranging the pavement, which was of brick, it extracted from the side
of the gutter a flat stone, nearly half a yard in length by about ten inches wide
and eight thick. This stone was taken out of the gutter at a level with the
bottom without interfering in any way with the surrounding mason-work, and,
being taken by an oblique line upwards, was thrown against the house on the
opposite side of the street. Here it took out six slats of a Venetian window
and falling on the round table of the saloon, shattered its marble slab.
124 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
From Charles Hale, United States Consul General.
ALEXANDRIA, Eaypt, November 1, 1864.
Sir: I have the honor to enclose for the Smithsonian Institution a map, pre-
pared by the Venetian voyager Miani, in which his explorations upon the river
Nile are contrasted with those of the English travellers Speke and Grant. The
object of Dr. Miani in requesting that his map (which is accompanied by a
printed explanation) should be communicated to some of the learned societies
in America is sufficiently explained in his communication to me, of which I
enclose a copy. Should you be able to respond in any way to the wishes of
Dr. Miani, it will give me pleasure to make any communication to him which
you may address to me for that purpose, through the Department of State at
Washington.
[This subject was referred to the American Geographical and Statistical
Society. |
From R. Brough Smyth, Secretary for Mines.
Mininc DepaRTMENT,
Melbourne, January 25, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th
November, 1864, and I am directed by the honorable the minister of mines to
_ forward to you, in accordance with your request, a complete set of papers, maps,
and plans, &c., as noted on the margin, relating to mining in Victoria, which
have been published by this department; and I am to state that Mr. Sullivan
will be glad to receive in return the annual reports, geological reports, and other
books, &¢., which you offer to forward, and which, on receipt, will be bound and
placed in the library of this department. Parcels intended for transmission to
this department may be sent, as may be most convenient, either to Messrs. J. M.
Mackay & Co., Leadenhall street, London, or to Messrs. Gibbs, Bright & Co.,
Liverpool, addressed to the honorable the Minister of mines, Melbourne, Vic-
toria, Australia.
From General James H. Carleton, U.S. A.
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NEw Mexico,
Santa Fé, N. M., August 23, 1865.
My Dear Sir: Last week I received from Surgeon B. J. D. Irwin, U.S.
amy, the enclosed pamphlet: in relation to two aerolites which were found near
Tucson, Arizona, one of which you have in the Smithsonian, and the other I
had the honor to present to the city of San Francisco.
In speaking of these aerolites to his excellency Henry Connolly, governor
of New Mexico, he informed me that he knows of one far surpassing, in point of
size, either of these. As the one he speaks of is probably larger than any one
now to be found in any cabinet in the world, I should like very much for the
United States to secure possession of it.
In regard to the place where it may be found ; the following are the governor’s
words : :
“In the State of Chihuahua, and at the hacienda of Don Juan Nepumocena
Urquida, say one hundred and eighty miles south of the city of Chihuahua, and
directly on the road from that city to Mexico, and directly among the houses
of the above-named hacienda, on the left-hand side of the road going to the
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. 125
city of Mexico, and within from thirty to fifty yards of the main road, is, what
is supposed to be, an aerolite.”’ Governor Connolly saw it nearly every year
for twenty years, the last time in 1846, and he describes it as follows:
“Tt is a large mass of solid iron, standing like a post in the earth, from which
it projects vertically about four feet. Its ‘diameter at the surface of the earth
is from two to three feet. It diminishes in size a little from the earth to its
_ apex, which is irregularly rounded. How far it is imbedded in the earth had
never been ascertained. Some small pieces, or chips, had been detached by
cold chisels and carried off as curiosities; but these pieces were insignificant
in point of size, and their removal has not disfigured the general mass as a
specimen.” ‘The governor says he thinks the portion above ground would
weigh a ton or more.
[1t would appear from this and other information received at the Institution,
that an immense fall of meteorites must have taken place, ina recent geological
period, in New Mexico. ]
From T. A. Conrad.
PHILADELPHIA, February 16, 1866.
“ Chalk has at last been found in this eee ane chalk, with flints
and abundance of fossils.
“Smoky Hill, Colorado, is an outlying mass of chalk, probably the only re-
mainder of a vast mass which denudation has removed. If any expeditions
should be going that route, it is well the scientific members of it should know
this.”
UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEw York,
Albany, January 12, 1866.
At a meeting of the regents of the University, held this day, the following
resolutions were unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That the regents of the University of the State of New York
gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the following valuable additions to the
collections of the State cabinet of natural history, presented by the Smithsonian
Institution, viz:
A series of specimens of rocks, minerals, and building stones, and a collection
of nearly five thousand shells belonging to almost twelve hundred species,
properly labelled and distinguished.
Resolved, 'That the secretary transmit to the Smithsonian Institution a copy
of the foregoing resolution.
I hereby. certify that the preceding is a true copy from the minutes of the
regents of the University.
’ 8S. B. WOOLWORTH, Secretary.
[The following letter was referred to the Institution by Hon. I. DoNNELLY,
of the House of Representatives :
From S. Y. Me Masters.
Sr. Paut, MINNESOTA,
January 23, 1866.
My Dear Sir: I have recently received a communication from the Rev.
Charles Reynolds, missionary in New Mexico, in which is the following:
126 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
“T had a call last evening, (September 1, 1865,) from Lieutenant Colonel
Samuel Tappan, who has lived and served as a soldier in Colorado and New
Mexico for several years. He begged me to write you in regard to the Navajo
tribe in New Mexico, 250 miles south of Santa Fé.
«« They are 15,000 strong, on a reserve; are the best farmers in New Mexico;
have no religious instruction; live in good houses; take but one wife; do
the outdoor work, and treat their wives as women; the most hopeful of all
Indians. :
From another source I learn that their language is almost pure Welsh; that a
Welshman can understand them at once; and that the blankets which they
make so beautifully are made in precisely the same way as the domestic blankets
in South Wales.”
The last paragraph of the above is very startling. If true, it suggests
a new train of thought for those engaged in the study of American ethnology.
Nay, it may go far to favor the views of Judge Hall, that the southern Indian
is of Pheenician origin, seeing that the Phcenician impress was strongly made on
the Welsh, while the former were developing the tin mines of Britain. Nay,
there is not a little to favor the idea that the natives of Wales and Cornwall
were themselves of Phoenician derivation.
Now, my dear sir, would it be too much trouble for you to look into the records
of the Indian bureau, and ascertain whether there is any record of the fact of
the Navajo Indians having anything in language, manners, or customs resem-
bling Wales? If you can learn anything of the kind, you will doa great
service to the public, and eliminate, at once, more than half the mysteries
of Indian history. True, this may not, in any way, affect the history of the
more northern tribes, but it will strongly suggest the idea that Indian history,
ix general, is far more simple than Indians themselves think, or would have us
believe.
If you can give me any information on this subject I shall be greatly obliged,
and will endeavor to follow it up. If you should not have time to examine the
matter, Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, might look into it.
Yours, faithfully,
[The following are the remarks of Mr. GEorGE Grpgs, to whom the forego-
ing letter was referred. ]
WASHINGTON, February 12, 1866.
My Dear Sir: I have the pleasure of acknowledging your request that
IT would answer the queries of Mr. Donnelly’s correspondent, and herewith
submit such information as I can give, without. more research than I now have
time for.
The reports of the existence of Indian tribes speaking Welsh are very old,
and their alleged location has been as fugitive as that of the Amazons. The
story, I presume, took its origin in the tradition of Prince Madoc’s voyage, the
patriotism of his countrymen leading to the desire that they should participate
with the northmen in the glory of discovering this continent. Whatever may
have been his fate, it is certain that neither his followers nor the Scandinavians
ever left their impress on an American language. As the knowledge of the various
Indian tongues has advanced with the progress of settlement and more enlight-
ened inquiry, the identical tribe, speaking Welsh, has receded like the mirage,
until it is now sought in almost that last place upon the continent to which a
foreign colony could have reached. The Zuni Indians, a “pueblo” or settled
tribe, living in the neighborhood of the Navajos, have enjoyed this reputation
of late on the strength of the number of albinos found among them.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE, V7.
The Hon. John R. Bartlett, now secretary of the State of Rhode Island, many
years ago prepared a very elaborate paper, giving all the “authorities” on this
subject, and, if I am not mistaken, published it at the request of the Welsh
citizens of New York. He certainly can elucidate the history of the legend if
Mr. McMasters desires to pursue the inquiry in that direction.
I do not, however, think it necessary to dwell upon that point, or the im-
probability of a change of color and feature. The character of the language of
the Navajos is well known. Vocabularies, more or less extensive, have been
obtained from time to time by various officers of the army, government agents,
and by Mr. Bartlett himself. From these the late Professor Wm. W. Turner
demonstrated, long since, its affinity with the great Athapascan or Chepewyan
stock, a family occupying the northern part of the continent, next south of the
Esquimaux, and extending from the shores of Hudson’s bay to those of the
Pacific. To this family the Apaches, neighbors of the Navajos, also belong.
Mr. Hale, the philologist of the United States exploring expedition, had pre-
viously obtained vocabularies of the Tahculli or “ Carriers,” of Fraser river, of
certain bands near the mouth of the Columbia, and of the Umpquas, to which
he gave the collective name of “'Ti-ka-li-Um-kwa.” These Mr. Gallatin proved
to be Athabascan tribes. In 1851 I collected new vocabularies on Rogue river
and the Klamath, still further south, which Mr. Tnrner recognized as belonging
to the same family. All these form links in the chain connecting the Navajos
and Apaches with the parent stock, and show that the migration southward of
the Athabascans took place by routes west of the Rocky mountains.
In fine, the Navajos and Apaches are offshoots of an extreme northern race
who have wandered southward, just as the Camanches are a branch of the Sho-
shonees or Snakes of Oregon. I have by me vocabularies of almost every tribe
of this great family, and can assure you that the verbal similarity is conclusive
as to their common origin. But my opinion is not needed in corroboration of
that of Turner and of Buschmann.
As regards the blankets, they are the common pattern of the Mexican “sarape,”’
made, it is true, exceedingly well.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant.
From M. M. Lisboa, late Brazilian minister to the United States.
Rio DE JANEIRO, December 17, 1864.
My Dear Sir: I did not forget my offer to you, and immediately on my
arrival here, in July last, I made application directly to the Kmperor for the
remittance of contributions to the Smithsonian Institution, and through his
Majesty’s gracious intervention I obtained orders which gave me satisfaction, and
will, I have no doubt, be agreeable to you also.
I have since crossed the ocean again, and am just arrived from Europe; this
absence has delayed my addressing you this letter.
The work of Descourtilz is ready to be offered to the institution—that is to
say, the first volume, for the continuation has not yet been published ; and they
are preparing at the museum a collection of birds for the same destination,
This collection is not complete; but I have taken upon myself to delcare
that that was not an objection, as a complete collection can only be made
by degrees.
I have also obtained an order from the Historical and Geographical Institute
of Brazil that a set of their three-monthly publication (the Revista) be sent to
you. You will find that some of the volumes are missing, because the boxes in
which they were kept have been destroyed; but if they are republished they
will be sent to you,
128 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
All these presents will be delivered here to Mr. Monroe, the United States
consul, with whom I have communicated, to insure their remittance, as I agreed
with you and Mr. Seward. I find, however, that he has received no instructions
from the State Department as I expected, and beg to suggest to you the propriety
of speaking again to the Secretary of State to request him to forward said in-
structions to the consul. :
Please to let me know that you have received this letter, and you may deliver
your answer to Mr. Fleury, attaché to the Brazilian legation at Washington.
Yours, very truly.
From Don F. L. L’ Burlamaqui, director.
BRAZILIAN NATURAL History Museum,
Rio de Janeiro, January 4, 1865.
My Dear Sir: I am ordered by the Brazilian government to send to the
Smithsonian Institution, of which you are the worthy secretary, a collection of
natural history specimens of this country, taken from the duplicates existing in
this museum.
Performing this duty, I should be very happy if I were enabled to send you
objects worthy of being ranked among your magnificent collections; but, un-
happily, I cannot do it in this opportunity, because the Brazilian museum is
exhausted with the returns made to other museums.
I send a few ornithological and entomological specimens and some bones of
fossil animals. :
I send also a copy of the “Ornithologie Brésilienne,”’ a work which shall
continue and form four or five volumes.
I profit by this opportunity to let you know that it would be very agreeable
to this museum to possess the interesting memoirs of your illustrious society.
I am, sir, with the highest consideration and respect, yours, very truly.
From the Museum of the city of Bern.
BERN, March 25, 1865.
HonoreD Sir: By order of the ‘commissioners of the museum of the city of
Bern, the undersigned beg leave to trouble you with the question whether it
will be practicable for them to obtain, through your kind intervention, a specimen
of the bison, by which is meant the well-preserved skin, with skull and extrem-
ies, of a full-grown male animal of that species, and what will be the price of
Sach an acquisition ? On account of the narrowness of our financial means we
find ourselves necessitated to place this question in the foreground, and on that
account also address ourselves directly to your interposition, holding ourselves
always ready to acknowledge the favor by any reciprocal service which may lie
in our power. Encouraged by the friendly assurances of Mr. Fogg, envoy of the
United States of North America tothe Swiss confederation, we prefer our request
to you in the hope of being favored with an obliging reply to the above-proposed
questions.
Be pleased to accept the assurances of the high consideration with which we
have the honor to remain, (in the name of the commission of the museum of
Bern,)
C. FISCHER, President.
B. STUDER, Secretary.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. 129
From Charles F. Loosey.
AUSTRIAN CONSULATE GENERAL,
New York, am. February 13, 1865.
Sir: The Imperial Library of Vienna having published a repertory of the
oriental manuscripts of the library§ translated into Latin by the philosophical-
historical class of the Academy of Sciences, under the title of “'Tabule codicum
manuscriptorum in biliotheca palatina Vindobonemi asservatorum,” and placed
a number of copies of the same at the disposition of the imperial royal lord
steward’s office, requesting that those public institutions and scientific societies
which have favored the imperial library with donations may be presented with
a copy of the repertory, I am directed by the imperial royal ministry of foreign
affairs to transmit to the Smithsonian Institution such copy, and beg to inform
you that I have forwarded to you by mail the repertory above referred to.
I have the honor to subscribe, yours, most respectfully.
From the British minister.
WASHINGTON, November 6, 1865.
My Dear Sir: Allow me to introduce to you Dr. H. Berendt, an American
gentleman of science, who is about to visit Honduras and its neighborhood, under
the patronage of the Smithsonian Institution of this place. His objects are to obtain
a more accurate knowledge of the geography and natural history of that region,
and to explore what is still unexplored. If you can assist him, you will oblige,
Yours, faithfully,
FREDERIC W. A. BRUCE.
JNO. GARDINER AUSTIN,
Lieutenant Governor of Honduras.
From Senor Irisarri, minister from Guatemala.
BrookuyNn, November 2, 1865.
Sir: In answer to your favor of the 30th ultimo, I have to say that I am
not personally acquainted myself with the corregidors of Peten and Verapaz.
Therefore it seems to me more conducive to the object of having Dr. H. Berendt
well recommended to the authorities of the different departments he intends to
visit, to write by the steamer of the 16th instant to the minister of foreign
affairs of Guatemala, telling him Dr. Berendt’s object, and the minister will
no doubt write to the corregidors recommending them to tender the doctor any
assistance or information in their power, to further such useful undertaking.
In case Dr. Berendt wishes it, I send for him a passport, recommending him
officially and especially to whatever authorities he may meet in Guatemala.
The secretary to this legation is the member for Peten in the chamber of
representatives of Guatemala, and although not personally acquainted with the
corregidor, is known to the latter by name and may, if desirable, give a letter
for the corregidor.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. T. DE IRISARRI.
98
130 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
Don Antonio José de Irissarri, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten-
tiary of the republic of Guatemala for the United States of America, to the
authorities of the departments of Yzabal, Vera Paz, and Peten.
Inasmuch as Dr. H. Berendt is about to undertake a scientific exploration in
those countries under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, the advan-
tages resulting from which will inure as well to Central America as the rest of
the world, in the advancement of historical and geographical knowledge, and
inasmuch as such enterprises ought to be promoted by the authorities of the
countries in which they are undertaken, I would hope that this may serve as a
general recommendation for Dr. Berendt, to the effect that he may be received
in all places ina manner suitable to the meritorious objects of his expedition.
Given at Brooklyn the second of November, 1865.
A. J. DE IRISSARRI.
From Seror Luis Molina, minister from Costa Rica, &c.
; LEGATION oF Honpuras,
Washington, November 8, 1865.
Dear Sir: In answer to your favor of 31st of October, ultimo, which only
eame to my hands three days ago, I have the pleasure to send you, as requested,
two letters, enclosed herewith, for the collectors of Omoa and Trujillo, re-
spectively ; and, besides, another to the minister for foreign relations, because
there is plenty of time before Dr. Berendt may go to Honduras, and I think the
best plan is to get the necessary orders from the government at Comayagua to
speed his good work.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant.
WASHINGTON, November 8, 1865.
At the instance of the worthy secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, estab-
lished in this capital, in conformity with the will of its founder, for the promotion
of human knowledge, I have the honor to recommend to you Dr. H. Berendt, a
naturalized citizen of the United States, an accomplished gentleman and man
of science of great merit, who, under the auspices of the Institution and as its
agent, purposes a visit to Central America with a view to exploring the less
known portions of Guatemala and the coasts of that republic, in order to aug-
ment the knowledge which we at present possess of their geography and natural
history.
The enterprise is purely scientific, interesting to the learned world, and cannot
fail especially to redound to the advantage of the people and government of
Honduras as far as concerned in its execution; under which impression I can
entertain no doubt that you will extend to Dr. Berendt and his assistants the
protection, aid, and facilities which may be in your power towards the further-
ance of their objects, agreeably to the request of the representative of the re-
public in the United States.
Be pleased to accept the-assurance of the distinguished consideration of your
obedient servant,
LUIS MOLINA.
The ADMINISTRATOR
of the Puerto de Omoa, Honduras.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. bial
WaAsHINGTON, November 7, 1865.
Dr. Berendt, accompanied, perhaps, by an assistant, is about to proceed to
Central America, as an agent and under the auspices of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution in this capital, for the purpose of increasing the knowledge which we
already possess respecting the geography and natural history of certain unex-
plored parts of Guatemala and the coasts of Honduras.
This purpose recommends itself by its intrinsic interest to the scientific world,
and more especially to the government and people of that republic; and Dr.
Berendt has been strongly represented to me by Professor Henry, the distin-
guished secretary of the above institution, as being a gentleman of great attain-
ments in science, and of much personal merit.
Upon these considerations, I pray you to accord to the Doctor the regard
which ‘he merits, and to his enterprise the protection, aid, and facilities which
may be in your own power, or to procure them for him from the functionaries
with which you may be in correspondence.
Dr. Berendt is a native of Germany, and a naturalized citizen of the United.
States.
Jt remains only to subscribe myself, with the highest respect, your obedient
servant,
LUIS MOLINA.
The ADMINISTRATOR of Trujillo, Honduras.
WASHINGTON, November 7, 1865.
I have been informed by the highly esteemed secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, Professor Henry, that Dr. H. Berendt, a citizen, by naturalization, of
the United States, has formed the design of prosecuting, under the auspices of
the Institution, either alone or accompanied by an assistant, an expedition
into certain unexplored regions of Central America, with a view to increasing:
the amount of our present knowledge of their geography and natural history.
This visit, purely scientific, will embrace the departments of Peten, Vera Paz,,
and Golfo Dulce, in Guatemala, and will terminate on the coast of Honduras.
As far as regards the exploration of their own coasts, the people and govern-
ment of Honduras will find themselves especially interested in this enterprise,
so strongly commended, as Professor Henry well observes, to the favor of
the whole scientific world ; and I have therefore consigned to the worthy professor
the papers which he has been pleased to request of me in the name of the In-
stitution for the authorities of the northwest coast, recommending to them to
extend to Dr. Berendt all the protection, aid, and facilities in their power and
which may be necessary to secure success to his meritorious undertaking. I have
sent to him, moreover, this letter, directed to your excellency, in order that the
supreme government may have knowledge of the projected enterprise, and that,
if the opinion of its merits be as favorable as I think it will be, orders may be:
graciously issued to the authorities of the northwest coast in conformity with
the objects indicated in my recommendations above referred to.
I should add that Protessor Henry speaks of Dr. Berendt as ‘a gentleman:
of great merit and of high accomplishments in point of science.”
Allow me the honor of subscribing myself, in conclusion, your excellency’s
very obedient servant,
LUIS MOLINA,
His Excellency Sefor Don Francisco Cruz,
Minister of Foreign Relations of Honduras, §c.
132 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
From J. Rosing, Charge d’ Affaires.
Hanseatic Legation,
Washington, D. C., February 25, 1865.
Sir: I beg to inform you that a society has been constituted in Bremen for
the promotion and dissemination of natural science and knowledge.* They
have requested me by their secretary, Dr. Phil. Franz Buchenan, to further
their ends on this continent, and I think I cannot do better than to recommend
the young society to your kind consideration. They will be very grateful for
any communication on the part of your Institution, and endeavor to give in
exchange whatever may be of interest for you and in their reach. They propose
publishing regular annual reports and periodicals, and dare to offer regular
exchanges, although conscious that their doings, owing to the smallness of their
means, will by no means compare with those of your proud Institution. The
more happy you could make this little fraternity ardently devoted to science.
Allow me, sir, again to offer you the assurance of my very high esteem as
your most obedient servant.
From the same.
Sir: The government of Bremen, sensible of so many acts of liberality of yours,
have directed me to offer you the accompanying volume, of entirely Bremen origin
and workmanship, as a contribution to the library of the Institution. It is a pub-
lication made by the society for Bremen history and antiquities, and gives an
illustrative description of that most venerable and accomplished monument of
the history of the republic, the court-house, at the same time the seat of the
government and senate.
I shall be gratified, sir, if you would kindly accept this small gift as a token
of good will on the part of the Bremen government and scientific societies
towards your most useful institution, and beg to solicit the continuance of your
highly estimated favor.
From the same.
Hanseatic LEGATION,
Washington, D. C., April 8, 1865.
‘Sir: I am happy to learn, from your kind note of the 5th instant, that the
Smithsonian Institution will be pleased to enter into scientific correspondence
with the new society for the promotion of natural science, at Bremen, whose
establishment I had the honor of announcing to you recently.
It is with gratification that I accept your liberal offer of a package of your
publications for the society; if it could be ready by the end of next week, I shall
have an opportunity of sending it off directly with other official matter.
With many thanks for your favors, believe me, sir, to be, with high regard,
your most obedient servant,
From J. George Hodgins, Department Superintendent.
DEPARTMENT OF Pusuic INSTRUCTION FoR UPPER CANADA,
Toronto, March 26, 1866.
Sir: I have the honor to state, in reply to your letter of the 10th ultimo, that
the numbers of the Journal of Education for which you have applied have been
sent to you.
* Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. Beare
You are already aware, from previous correspondence with this department,
that the legislature of the province, at the instance of the chief superintendent
of education, authorized the establishment of a meteorological station in every
county in Upper Canada in connexion with the department of public instruction,
the observers being the head masters of grammar schools. 'The following in-
struments were obtained from England for each station: Barometer by Negretti
and Zambra; dry and wet bulb thermometers by the same; and maximum and
minimum thermometers by Cassella. These were compared with standards at
the new observatory by Mr. Glaisher, and again at the Toronto observatory.
They are excellent instruments, and may be relied on. Each station is also
supplied with a wind vane and rain gauge. Full instructions and tables, together
with forms for periodical reports, are provided for the observers.
As some of the counties have hesitated to pay for the instruments, and in
others the observations were not duly taken, it was deemed necessary in 1865
to obtain further legislation and regulations on the subject. Although some
observers faithfully performed their duty under the former system, it was found
that more satisfactory results would be obtained by restricting the number of
stations and making a pecuniary allowance to observers for their labors. Our
stations are now ten (10) in number, situated at the most favorable points between
longitude 83° and 74° west, and latitude 42° and 46° north. The observers are
educated men, and graduates of universities. Arrangements have also been made
for the careful examination and comparison of the records of the observations at
this office. The results will appear monthly in our official journal.
I send herewith copies of some recent regulations which we have issued to
our stations.
As our meteorological establishments are now being placed on a more satis-
factory footing, we may hope to contribute information of permanent value ; and
your institution would confer a favor on this department by sending us as com-
plete a series of its meteorological reports, with any papers bearing on the sub-
ject, as it may be able to afford.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
JosepyH Henry, Esq., LL. D.,
Secretary Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
From A. Panizzi, Principal Librarian.
British Museum, Ju/y 20, 1865.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th May last,
informing me that on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution you have forwarded
to the British Museum, as a present to the trustees, upon certain conditions, a
type series of fossils from the upper Missouri, collected by Lieutenant War-
ren, and Dr. Hayden.
In reply, I have to express the thanks of the trustees of the British Museum
for the very obliging offer which the managers of the Smithsonian Institution
have made to them, and I am to assure you of the readiness of the trustees to
reciprocate the kind feeling of interest which the managers have shown in the
improvement of the collections of the British Museum. Although the trustees
cannot accept a present under restrictive conditions, they are prepared, in this
instance, to meet the wishes of the managers of the Smithsonian Institution so
far as may be in their power, and I am accordingly directed to send you here-
with the copy of a letter on this subject from Professor Owen, the superintend-
ent of the departments of natural history in this museum, on whose views the
trustees are disposed to act.
I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
134 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
[The condition referred to as required by the Smithsonian Institution is that
suitable returns be made from the duplicates in the collections of the Museum
when called for. ‘This condition is made on the part of the institution to favor
the formation of museums in this country.|
Britis Musrvum, July 20, 1865.
Dear Sir: I enclose the letter and form which you brought me on the 17th
instant from the principal librarian. In reference to the fourth condition, after
due inquiry and inspection, I should be prepared, when required, to submit to
the trustees a series of duplicates, in my opinion suitable in the sense of equiva-
lency, as a return for the type series of fossils proposed to be presented con-
ditionally by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, United States.
1 remain, dear sir, yours truly,
RICHARD OWEN.
Tuomas Bortcer, Esq.,
Assistant Secretary British Museum.
From Professor William Hincks.
Toronto University, March 26, 1866.
Dear Sir: The additional proof just received of the liberality with which
the Smithsonian Institution uses its duplicates in promoting science claims some-
thing more than the mere formal expression of our gratitude, and is, I assure
you, very highly appreciated by myself and my colleagues in the management
of our museum, and by all the authorities of our University.
Permit me to explain that the objects of the museum are first to afford the
best attainable materials for instruction in the several branches of natural science
to the professor of that department in University College; secondly, to afford
opportunities for private and special study to any persons seeking them; and
thirdly, to offer a pleasing and instructive exhibition to the publie at large,
which is opened at all proper hours without any payment, and is extensively
visited both by our own citizens and the numerous travellers from the United
States, the most intelligent of whom have expressed themselves in the most
flattering terms respecting its interest and beauty. We perhaps excel most in
birds, and so far as the representation of the few families that remain unrepre-
sented in the collection, and the completion of our North American series,
nothing is more desirable to us. In mammalia we aim chiefly at obtaining the
moderate-sized native animals, and a few of the more deviative forms, not having
either space or funds for attempting more. We have a good instructive series
of shells and some special collections, and this branch is a favorite one. We
have many fine insects, and greatly desire to extend and improve that collection.
We have some excellent specimens of fishes, both British and Canadian, and a
few Chinese and West India. We have some crustacea and echinodermata and
a few good polypifera, but are comparatively deficient in these interesting
branches. Our botanical collection includes about 7,000 species, chiefly European
and North American, with many fine forms from all parts of the globe. We
are somewhat crippled in funds, which checks very rapid increase, and we have
no means of accumulating duplicates to any extent, but we should feel the
sincerest pleasure in rendering any service within the reach of our efforts to the
Smithsonian Institution as a proof of our estimate of the value of its contri-
butions to science and the liberality with which it seems to be conducted.
Our specimens are throughout systematically arranged and handsomely ex-
hibited. I should have said above that we have some good reptilia and am-
phibia, yet very few comparatively.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. 135
From the Rev. E. Petitot to Wm. L. Hardisty, Esq., (commumecated by Mr.
Hardisty.)
[ Translation. }
Fort Rag, Hupson’s Bay Territory, June 20, 1864.
My Dear Sir: I take advantage of Mr. Smith’s departure to offer you the
assurance of my respect and perfect consideration. I thank you for myself
and my converts for the permission you have kindly given me to take up my
quarters within the bounds of Fort Rae.
As Mr. Smith will perhaps tell you, I have had an opportunity of visiting
the tribes which inhabit the interior of the country comprised between Great
Bear lake, Copper Mine river and Fort Rae. It is through the kindness of that
gentleman that I have been able to comply with the desire of the Indians, and
J am infinitely indebted to him for it. As many incidents of this journey were
of a kind to interest a “ voyageur,” I shall allow myself to amuse you with a-
few.
In the first place I will spare you the fatigues of a journey on snow-shoes,
which, notwithstanding your reputation as a pedestrian, you will doubtless not
regret performing without stirring from your easy-chair. I will transport you,
therefore, at once to Lake Kleritic, eight days’ travel by that method to the north-
northeast of Fort Rae, and ten or twelve days by canoe. There, upon a pretty
high hill, is situated the camp.
A magnificent view is enjoyed from this point of the above-named lake and
of Lake Kamitié, which empties into it. Their immovable and frozen surfacs
winds between feldspathic mountains, sometimes naked or eaten into by lichene
and mosses, sometimes covered with forests of thorns. But these trees are only
pigmies of five or six feet in height; wretched shrubs whose roots are buried
in a thick bed of yellowish lichens, and whose dwarfed and vertical branches
allow the rays of the sun to pass through. On the left extend arid steppes,
dotted with pools of stagnant water, serving as a pasturage for herds of rein
deer which run unceasingly over the surface of the lake. This country is a
true Arabia Petrea, where the eye takes in only blocks of granite, masses of
coarse porphyry, diorite, and especially of feldspathic orthose. Here there is
no stratification, no talus of debris or metamorphism; the mountains have under-
gone no degradation, and the waves which beat against their foundations dash
themselves in vain. Upon the slope opposite to these rocks stretches the
Ot’-el-néré or flat country of the Esquimaux, which, despite its name, is com-
posed only of mounds and rounded hills. I did not go there only because I
had more work than I could perform among my Indians. It is time that I
spoke of them.
They belong to the great Montagnais or Téné nation and to the Slave tribe,
but their idiom is very different from the language of the Ténés. Many of
these Indians have already made the voyage from Portage la Roche, and this
present year two of them are preparing to repeat it. ‘The young people and
grown men alone visit Fort Rae, or that at the Forks, or have intercourse with
the whites. The rest of the tribe, the old men, women and children, not only
have never seen the missionaries, but even a white man of any sort. I except,
however, King Beaulieu, who visited their midst in May, 1863, but did not
ascend as far as I, by nearly three days’ journey.
It is a singular spectacle, that of a horde of these savages on their march over
a frozen lake, and it was the first time that I have been permitted to witness it.
As far as the eye could reach, a long file of sledges and dogs, women loaded
with burdens and young children, the cries of infants, the barking of dogs, and
the shouts which their conductors uttered—the whole forming a picture as cu-
rious as wild.
—
136 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE.
I have told you that these poor Indians have never yet seen a missionary,
which is saying that they had not a trace of Christianity. Thus disease (I speak
of moral disease) has made frightful ravages among these unfortunate tribes. It
cannot be denied, and it is my conviction, that we shall assist at the obsequies
of the Dog Rib nation, (Plats cotés de Chiens.) ‘The incredible venereal ex-
cesses to which these wretched people were formerly addicted has destroyed the
constitution, although so robust, of the Indians, and abridged half their existence.
Among them young persons are only seen emaciated and frail, with bony and
hectie faces. Pulmonary consumption slowly undermines the tribe. During
the forty-four days which I passed among them, I ministered to two of them on
the death-bed. On my return to Fort Rae I found five graves yet fresh, and
upon the journey of the Toaut Onédés river two others; a tenth savage is dying
at the moment of my writing you these lines. If you add to this figure, already
unhappily too great, the thirty-four Indians who died during the last winter, you
have forty-four deceased in the space of six months, an enormous total consider-
ing the number of this tribe, (about 1,200, according to my enumeration.) 'To
pthysis, which appears to be, with the venereal disease, the scourge of this peo-
ple, is added influeneza, which extends its ravages especially among the children.
Poor people, they are very different in their morals from what they were for-
merly. The beneficent light of the gospel, in entering their hearts, has opened
their eyes to their past excesses; but as Adam, converted, they carry the chastise-
ment of their guilt with them.
It is to these causes, venereal excess and incestuous unions, that I attribute the
general stuttering of these Indians. Among ten there was not a single one who
was not a stammerer.
I have dwelt long upon these Indians, my dear sir. What I have told you
is not for the purpose of exposing the scourges of humanity. My duty is to hide
them. But they speak eloquently in showing that the theory of the primitive
man, the happiness of man free and cut off from religion, is but an Utopia, worthy
of the philosophers who invented it.
Ouce more I thank you for having afforded me the means of doing a share of
good to these poor Indians. They will repay you some day. I refrain. It is
time to close this long farrago, which has become tedious.
Will you, while excusing my loquacity, receive anew the assurances of the
distinguished consideration with which I am, sir, your very humble servant.
EOD Gy.
ON THE LATE
SOS, EP Fe Mie, OE eT) Eh
y §
BREVET MAJOR GENERAL,
LATE CHIEF ENGINEER U. 8S. ARMY, AND REGENT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
By J. G. Barnard, Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers, and Brevet Brigadier General U. S. A.;
Brigadier and Brevet Major General U.S. V., A. M., LL. D., N. A. S.
[Reprinted from the Annual of the National Academy of Sciences for 1866. ]
{Instead of preparing a eulogy myself, as requested by the Board of Regents, of their lamented associate
General Totten, I have thought the service would be better rendered by presenting the facts I had gathered
on the subject to General Barnard, and by adopting his tribute to the memory of one so long and so effi-
ciently connected with the Institution. J. H.}
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Academy:
In conformity with a clause of the constitution of this Academy, and in obe-
dience to your instructions, 1 am here to render the tribute of a formal biograph-
ical notice in commemoration of one who was numbered among our most vener-
able and most honored associates. If, in the language of one of our body, on a
previous and similar occasion, “itis no unreasonable assumption that public
benefit and individual incentives may be derived from the history of any man
whose scientific services have rendered him worthy of admittance to your num-
ber,’’ that assumption must have a peculiar force when it applies to one who
has “ finished his course,’ and has filled a life, protracted beyond the usual
term, with scientific labors of no ordinary variety and magnitude.
It is but little more than two years since we first met for the great and import-
ant work of organizing this National Academy, and with us—of our number, if
not personally present—were “both the gray-headed and very aged men.”
But, alas! these, like autumnal leaves, are rapidly falling away, and already
the places ofa ‘l'otten, a Hitchcock, and a Silliman know them no more, save in
the records of their lives and deeds, and in the grateful memories of their associ-
ates. What a trio of names, glorious in the annals of science, is this! Well
may they be incentives to us who yet remain to strive that we may worthily
replace them, and establish for this Academy a reputation for usefulness and
science which their honored bearers have acquired for themselves.
Although there may be many among us more capable than myself of doing
justice to the memory of our departed colleague, I feel grateful that the lot has
fallen to me. Placed under General Totten on my first entrance into the mili-
tary service—almost in my boyhood—my relations to him, both personal and
professional, have ever since been continuous and intimate. Under obligations
to him of no ordinary nature, I could not do otherwise than regard him with
reverence and affection. If I fail, therefore, it shall not be because my heart is
unmoved, nor because I am insensible to the magnitude of my task.
Josepu GILBert Torren was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on the 23d
of August, 1788. His grandfather, Joseoh Totten, came from England before
138 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
the war of the Revolution, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York.
Attached to the cause of the mother country, he left that city, after the acknowl-
edgment of our independence, for Annapolis, Nova Scotia. It would appear
that his two sons remained in this country, since one of them, Peter G. Totten,
married in 1787 Grace Mansfield, of New Haven, a very beautiful woman, whe
died a few years after her marriage, leaving two children, the subject of this
memoir and a daughter, Susan Maria, who married Colonel Beatty, an English
officer, and who is still living, a widow, in London. After the death of Mrs.
Totten, which occurred when her infant son was but three years old, the father,
having been appointed United States consul at Santa Cruz, West Indies, took
up his future abode on that island, leaving his son under the care of his mater-
nal uncle, Jared Mansfield, a graduate of Yale College, 1777, and a learned
mathematician. ‘The boy continued to be a member of Mr. Mansfield’s family
until the latter removed to West Point, having been appointed captain of engi-
neers and a teacher in the United States Military Academy, then just organ-
ized by act of Congress of 1802. Young Totten’s first teacher was Mr. Levi
Hubbard, brother to the rector (at that time) of Trinity church, New Haven ;
afterwards his education was carried on under the personal superintendence of
hisunele. Of the period of his schoolboy life we have some glimpses, through the
recollections of an old friend and schoolmate, Mr. Ralph Ingersoll of New Ha-
ven, who speaks of him as a bright, noble youth, of fine mind, fond of study,
and always at the head of his class, gentlemanly in his deportment, and
greatly beloved.
Young Totten went to West Point with the family of his uncle in 1802. He
was soon after appointed a cadet. He remained at West Point one term, that
of 1803, and perhaps part of that of 1804. He was promoted to a second lieu-
tenancy in the corps of engineers, July 1, 1805.
The venerable General J. G. Swift, recently deceased, his brother engineer
officer and life-long friend, describes him at West Point as ‘a flaxen-headed
boy of fourteen years of age, a good scholar, and to me a most interesting com-
panion.”’
Captain Mansfield, having been appointed surveyor general of Ohio and the
western Territories, November 4, 1803, induced his nephew to accompany him
to the west as an assistant on that first systematic survey of any of the new
States of the Union. Here that faculty which so distinguished him through
life, of keen observation of whatever was most interesting connected with or in-
cidentally brought under his notice by his professional pursuits, displayed itself
at this early age in a noteworthy manner. ‘The vestiges of an earlier race than
the red man, which have since been made the subject of the researches of a Squier
and a Davis, of a Lapham and of a Haven, and to which, during recent times,
fresh attention has been directed by the developments of the high antiquity
of the human race in Europe as shown by similar relics over the surface of that
country and by the lacustrine remains in Switzerland, attracted his notice and
were made the subjects of survey. Although these investigations were not
published, they are, I believe, the first we have record of; those of Caleb
Atwater, who is called by Squier and Davis “ the pioneer in this department, ”
not having been published until 1819. Full descriptions and measurements of
several of these mounds, particularly that of Circleville, were made and sent to
his friend, J. G. Swift. ‘lo most youths of his age those remains of structures,
built
“while yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms
Of sy mmetry, and rearing on its rock
The glittering Parthenon, e
would have been passed over with vague curiosity or listless indifference.
Not so with young Totten. Although notable, perhaps, to perceive all the eth-
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 139
nological importance which has since been attached to them, he could yet appre-
ciate them as objects of high interest, as vestiges of the races which had inhab-
ited the country, and give his time to their examination and measurement.
During the two years which he passed in the office of his uncle at Ludlow’s
station near Cincinnati, he was a companion of several young men who subse-
quently became conspicuous, among whom were Nicholas Longworth, Samuel
Perry, Daniel Duke, Thomas Pierce, and Peyton Symmes, all of whom are now
dead. His tastes, however, led him back to the army, (from which he had re-
signed shortly after his promotion,) and, February 23, 1808, he was reappointed
a second lieutenant of engineers, his commission bearing the same date as that
of his subsequent friend, brother engineer officer, and professional associate,
Sylvanus Thayer, of national fame as for so many years superintendent of the
Military Academy, and as the officer to whom is mainly due its present high
grade among the military and scientific institutions of the world. Lieutenant
Totten commenced his career as a military engineer under Colonel Jonathan
Williams, the first chief of the corps, and was engaged on the construction of
Castles Williams and Clinton, New York harbor.
At the commencement of the war with England Lieutenant Totten was as-
signed to duty as chief engineer of the army under Brigadier General Van
Rensselaer, in the campaign of 1812, on the Niagara frontier, and in that capa-
city took a conspicuous part iu the battle of Queenstown. He was subsequently
chief engineer of the army under the command of Major General Dearborn, in
the campaign of 1813, and of the army under Major General Izard and Briga-
dier General Macomb, in the campaign of 1814, on Lake Champlain. Having
been promoted to a captaincy in 1812, he was in June, 1813, brevetted major,
for ‘‘meritorious services,’ and September 11, 1814, lieutenant colonel, for
“eallant conduct at the battle of Plattsburg ;”’ his efficient services as an engi-
neer in the defensive arrangements of that field having contributed powerfully
to the successful issue. rte
The termination of the war may be considered as the close of one period in
the life and services of General 'T'otten, and the commencement of another; or
rather it may be said, that the events of which we have traced a faint outline
were but the preparation and training of his mind for the real work of his life,
Reared under the eyes and guardianship of a relative distinguished for his
mathematical attainments, receiving as extensive a military and scientific educa-
tion as West Point at that early day could give, called by his position in Sur-
veyor General Mansfield’s office, not only to exercise the science which the du-
ties involved, but to take extended views of our country as to the interconnec-
tion of its parts, and their relations to commerce or war, then practically taught
the duties of a military engineer in what concerns the defence of harbors, and
finally carried through the ordeal of actual war in the campaigns of armies in
the field, he was now prepared for the great work of his life—the fortification
of our seaboard frontier. When I call this the great work of his life, | am not
unaware that it is but a part of that work—still the most important part, and
one to which his other labors may be considered incidental.
A brief reference to the condition and progress of sea-coast defence at that
period is here appropriate. Previous to the Revolution, our seaport towns had
not grown into large cities, nor were there great naval establishments or military
depots to invite the enterprises of an enemy. During that contest, the harbors of
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, &c., had been, toa certain extent,
“fortified” against naval attack by slight earthen batteries, or in some few
cases by small and (as we would now call them) insignificant earthen forts. A work
of palmetto logs and sand on Sullivan’s island, Charleston harbor, mounting
but 30 guns, decisively repulsed, early in the revolutionary war, the attack of
the British fleet under Sir Peter Parker, consisting of two frigates and six
sloops-of-war, carrying about 270 guns, destroying four of the smaller vessels, and
140 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN:
inflicting a loss of 205 in killed and wounded (eleven times as many per gun
employed against them as the English lost at Trafalgar;) thus decisively dem-
onstrating the value of fortifications, and the superiority of land batteries to
ships. But with an immense sea-coast line and sparse population, it was im-
possible to hold our seaports against the great naval power of the mother coun-
try, and the war of the Revolution was mainly a contest of land forces. After
the attainment of our independence, the importance of fortifying our harbors
impressed itself on the mind of General Washington, and the political agitations
which grew out of the French Revolution, and which threatened to involve the
new-born Power of the West, prompted early action in this direction. In that
day war, though a science, had not grown into one which makes tributary to it
all other sciences, as it has since done. Fortification, indeed, had reached a
high degree of perfection, but the elaborate treatises on that subject scarcely
touched the subject of harbor defence, so little art was apparently supposed to
be involved in throwing up batteries to defend the entrances of ports. The art
of a Vauban and Cormontaigne was little concerned in the war from which we
had just emerged, and the circumstances were too dissimilar, the theatre too
large and too thinly populated, the armies engaged too small, to afford to the pre-
cepts of a Lloyd or a Templehoff much apparent applicability. While the war
developed generals of unquestionable ability in the spheres in which they acted,
it seemed to be conceded, that for military science, and especially for the art
of fortification, we must look to Europe. Hence we find so many of the early
harbor defences of our principal seaport towns to have been built under the di-
rection of foreign officers who had found employment among us, and who did
not always possess the knowledge of the art to which they laid claim.
The importance of a Military Academy for the training of officers for the mil-
itary service, and especially for the engineers and artillery, had been acknowl-
edged even from the very outset of the struggle for independence. We find
even the Continental Congress appointing a committee ‘to prepare and bring in
a plan of a Military Academy,” and the first Secretary of War, General Knox,
in an official report to the President, discusses the subject at much length. The
establishment of such an institution is known to have been a favorite object of
General Washington, and in his annual message in 1793 he suggests the inqui-
ry, “whether a material feature in the improvement” of the system of military
defence “ ought not to afford an opportunity for the study of those branches of
the art which can scarcely ever be attained by practice alone;” and in 1796 he
states that ‘‘ the desirableness of this institution had constantly increased with
every new view he had taken of the subject.”
An act of Congress of 1794 had provided for a corps of artillerists and engi-
neers, to consist of four battalions, to each of which eight cadets were to be
attached, and made it the duty of the Secretary of War to procure books, instru-
ments and apparatus for the benefit of said corps; and in 1798 Congress author-
ized the raising of an additional regiment, increased the number of cadets to
fifty-six, and empowered the President to appoint four teachers of the arts and
sciences necessary to the efliciency of this “corps.” Of the four teachers,
none were appointed prior to January, 1801, at which time Mr. George Barron
was appointed teacher of mathematics, and the institution, “ which was nothing
more than a mathematical school for the few cadets then in the service,” was
nominally established.
It was soon discovered that the regiment of artillerists and engineers could
not combine with effect the two duties assigned to its members, and a law was
therefore framed separating them into two corps, and declaring that the corps of
engineers should be stationed at West Point, New York, and should constitute
a Military Academy. ‘This act of March 16, 1802, which is the organic law of
the corps of engineers and of the Military Academy, provided for the appoint-
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 141
ment of a certain number of officers and cadets,* (not to exceed twenty in all,)
and declared that “the principal engineer, or, in his absence, the next in rank,
shall have the superintendence of the Military Academy, under the direction of
the President of the United States.”
It is notmy purpose here to follow further the history of that institution; I
have alluded to its initiation as a step taken to provide for an acknowledged
want of the period—an institution for teaching the military sciences to young
men entering the army, and for creating a competent corps of engineers. It
was soon found, however, that the duties of engineer oflicers were inconsistent
with their remaining at West Point, and themselves constituting “‘a Military
Academy.” Most of them were soon called to dutiesalong the seaboard, in con-
structing our fortifications, while, as the wants of the service and of the Acad-
emy have been more clearly seen, the number of cadets has been increased, to
supply not only the engineers and artillery, but officers of all arms of the ser-
vice, and the various professorships and departments of instruction now existing
have been established.
As the duties of the corps became more and more extensive, its chief, though
charged with the administration of its affairs, could not be constantly present at
the Academy, and it ultimately became apparent that the immediate superin-
tendency of such an institution was incompatible with his proper functions. In
1817, an officer selected from the corps (Brevet Major Sylvanus Thayer, to
whom allusion has already been made) was appointed permanent syperintend-
ent of the Academy, and made subject only to the orders of the President of
the United States.
Major (afterwards Colonel) Jonathan Williams, a near relative of Dy. Frank-
lin, whom he accompanied, as secretary, to France, where he studied the mili-
tary sciences, and made himself acquainted with the standard works on fortifi-
cation, was thie first chief engineer of the United States under the law of 1802.
He was an officer of decided merit, much beloved by his subordinates, and is
justly styled the father of the corps of engineers and of the Military Acad-
emy.
While exercising his superintendence of the Academy, he devoted himself
personally to the fortification of New York harbor, and most of the forts which
constitute the inner line of defence of that harbor—Fort Columbus, Castles
Williams and Clinton, (Castle Garden,) and a work similar to the last named,
located two or three miles higher up the river (Fort Gansevoort)—were planned
by him, and built under his immediate supervision,
Castle Williams was the first ““casemated”’ battery erected in this country,
(built in 1807-10,) and was planned after the system of Montalembert, with
which, as we have seen, Colonel Williams had made himself acquainted in
France. This and other works of Colonel Williams, though they have been
superficially and ignorantly criticised, were really meritorious, and do not suffer
> comparison with European structures of the same or even much more recent
ates.
- The indications of an approaching war with England, and the obvious inade-
quacy of existing fortifications, had led to renewed exertions, and prompted the
works just mentioned and others at all our seaports, so that when the war broke
out there was not a town of any magnitude upon the coast not provided with
one or more batteries. But most of the works so thrown up before the subject
had been studied and systematized as a whole were defective in design, smatl,
weak, and, being built, for present economy, of cheap materials and workman-
ship, very perishable. In the main, however, they answered their purpose—
more, perhaps, through an undue respect for them on the part of our foe than
* Besides ten cadets of engineers, forty cadets ‘‘of artillery” were authorized by this
law; making fifty cadets in all.
142 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
through their intrinsic strength. It was not till after the close of the war with
England that a permanent system of coast defence was entered upon by our
government. Indeed, without the experience of that war it is doubtful whether
a measure, always so unpopular and generally so little understood as a national
system of fortifications, could have gained the support of Congress and of the
people. A “board of engineers’ was constituted in 1816, with instructions to
make examinations of the | sea-coast, and to prepare plans for defensive works,
subject to the revision of the chief engineer and the sanction of the Secretary
of War.
Up to this period the Military Academy had maintained a sort of embryo
existence, without definite form or a prescribe d system. The annual term of
study lasted from April to November, all the intermediate months being vaca-
tion. No fixed number of terms was necessary to graduation, nor was it pre-
scribed what should be studied. Some cadets remained but a single term be-
fore being commissioned; others, several years. Although this period pro-
duced oflicers who afterwards became highly distinguished in engineering, (as
well as in other branches of military art,) it is not surprising that the govern-
ment yet entertained the common notion that only in Europe, and especially in
France, could high military science be found ; nor that, in undertaking so vast
and costly a work as the fortification of our sea-coast, distrust should have-been
felt in the unaided abilities of our own engineer officers. A distinguished
French engineer, General Simon Bernard, was invited to this country, ‘and, as
‘assistant’? in the corps of engineers, (an oflice created for the purpose by
Congress,) made a member of the board which, as first constituted, November
16, 1816, consisted of himself as president, Colonel William McRee, and Lieu-
tenant Colonel J.G. Totten. In 1817 Colonel Totten was relieved, and ap-
pears to have been stationed at Rouse’s Point, Lake Champlain, in charge of
fortifications at that place, and the board to have been composed of Brigadier
General J. G. Swift, Chief Engineer, Brigadier General Bernard, and Colonel
McfRee; but Colonel Totten was again made a member in 1819, and (both
General Swift and Colonel McRve having resigned) the permanent board came
to consist of Bernard and Totten alone, and the labor of wor king out the funda-
mental principles of the system, and of elaborating the projects of defence for
the great seapoftts, thus devolved mainly upon these two officers, though naval
officers of rank and experience were e associated with them whenever their exam-
inations included positions for dock-yards, naval depots, or other objects which
concerned the naval service.
Though the advent of a foreign officer, and his assignment to ‘this duty, under
the anomalous designation of “assistant” in the corps of engineers, naturally
caused some feeling, yet it can scarcely be doubted that the influence of the
proceeding was beneficial. If in Swift, McItee, Totten, Thayer, and many
others, were found high engineering abilities and acquirements, it is no less true
that professional association with such a man as Bernard was calculated to stim-
ulate to higher attainments and more zealous exertion. ‘The spirit of emulation
alone would induce our own officers to prove to the country that they were not
inferior to others. To high military and scientific acquirements and great ex-
perience in his professional duties, General Bernard united to the qualities of an
amiable and accomplished gentleman the tact to adapt himself to his peculiar
position without wounding the pride of those with whom he was thus associ-
ated. he prestige of his name aided powerfully in sustaining, with the admin-
istration and with Congress, the measures which the board found nECEESEY to
recommend, and in estab! ishing firmly, as a part of our national policy, the sys-
tem of sea-coast defence by fortifications. In recounting the origin and growth
of the system, it is but just to give that name an honorable mention.
By the board of engineers of which I‘have been speaking a series of reports
was drawnup, which, mostly from the pen of our departed associate, form his
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 143
best memorial, and exhibit in a masterly manner the principles of sea-coast and
harbor defence, and their application to our own country. Ina paper of this
kind it will not be out of place to give some idea, at least, of the arguments and
views contained in these documents. An elaborate report of 1826, from which
I quote, gives ageneral réswmé of the principles which have guided the labors
of the board, and of the results arrived at:
“The means of defence for the seaboard of the United States, constituting a
system, may be classed as follows: First, a navy ; second, fortifications ; third,
interior communications by land and water; and fourth, a regular army and
well-organized militia.
« The navy wust be provided with suitable establishments for construction
and repair, stations, harbors of rendezvous, and ports of refuge, all secured by
fortifications defended by regular troops and militia, and supplied with men and
materials by the lines of intereommunication. Being the only species of offen-
sive force compatible with our domestic institutions, it will then be prepared to
act the great part which its early achievements have promised, and to which its
high destiny will lead.
“ Fortifications must close all important harbors against an enemy, and se-
eure them to our military and commercial marine; second, must deprive an
enemy of all strong positions where, protected by naval superiority, he might fix
permanent quarters in our territory, maintain himself during the war, and keep
the whole frontier in perpetual alarm; third, must cover the great cities from
attack; fourth, must prevent as far as practicable the great avenues of interior
navigation from being blockaded at their entrances into the ocean; fifth, must
cover the coastwise and interior navigation by closing the harbors and the sev-
eral inlets from the sea which intersect the lines of communication, and thereby
further aid the navy in protecting the navigation of the country; and sixth,
must protect the great naval establishments.
“ Interior communications will conduct with certainty the necessary supplies
of all sorts to the stations, harbors of refuge, and rendezvous, and the establish-
ments for construction and repair, for the use both of the fortifications and the
navy; will greatly facilitate and expedite the concentration of military force
and the transfer of troops from one point to another; insure to these also unfail-
ing supplies of every description, and will preserve unimpaired the interchange
of domestic commerce even during periods of the most active external warfare.
“ The army and militia, together with the marine, constitute the vital princi-
pleof the system.
“From this sketch it is apparent that our system of defence is composed of
elements whose numerous reciprocal relations with each other and with the
whole constitute its excellence; one element is scarcely more dependent than
the whole system is on any one. Withdraw the navy, and the defence becomes
merely passive; withdraw interior communications from the system, and the
navy must cease in a measure to be active for want of supplies, and the fortifi-
cations can offer but a feeble resistance for want of timely re-enforcements ; with-
draw fortifications, and there only remains a scattered and naked navy.”’
The relation of the navy to fortifications is one of those subjects not always
well appreciated, and hence the cause of mischievous notions and much misrep-
resentation. No pains is spared in these reports to make this subject clearly
understood. After the quotation just given, Colonel Totten remarks:
“It is necessary to observe, in the first place, that the relation of fortifica-
tions to the navy in a defensive system is that of a sheltering, succoring power,
while the relation of the latter to the former is that of an active and powerful
auxiliary ; and that the latter ceases to be efficient as a member of the system
the moment it becomes passive, and should in no case (we allude to the navy
proper) be relied on as a substitute for fortifications. This position may be
easily established.
144 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JCSEPH G. TOTTEN.
“Tf our navy he inferior to that of the enemy, it can afford, of course, unaided
by fortifications, but a feeble resistance, single ships being assailed by whole
fleets; if it be equal, or superior, having numerous points along an extended
frontier to protect, and being unable to concentrate, because ignorant of the
selected point of attack, every point must be simultaneously guarded :. our sep-
arate squadrons may therefore be captured in detail by the concentrated fleet of.
the attacking power. If we attempt to concentrate under an idea that a favorite
object of the enemy is foreseen, he willnot fail topush his forces upon the places
thus left without protection. ‘This mode of defence is liable to the further
objections of being exposed to fatal disasters, although not engaged with an
enemy, and of leaving the issue of conflict often to be determined by accident,
in spite of all the efforts of courage and skill. Ifit were attempted to improve
upon this mode by adding temporary batteries and field works, it would be found
that, besides being weak and inadequate from their nature, the most suitable
positions for these works must often be neglected, under a necessary condition of
the plan, that the ships themselves be defended; otherwise, they must either
take no part in the contest, or be destroyed by the superior adversary.”
It is hardly to be expected that a system affording so much room for discus-
sion, and by its importance inviting it, should, especially in this country, escape
adverse judgment. Military and naval men, congressmen, and even cabinet
officers, have assailed it, called in question the principles on which it is based, or
denied the judiciousness of their application. ‘The forms and sources of assault
have been varied, but there has been really no great difference in the substance,
of which, perhaps, as good an expression as any may be found in these dogmas,
forming the pith of a criticism from no less a source than the Secretary of War,
Mr. Cass, approved by the President, General Jackson:
“1st. That for the defence of the coast, the chief reliance should be on the
navy ;
«2d. That in preference to fortifications, floating batteries should be intro-
duced wherever they can be used ;
«3d. That we are not in danger of large expeditions ; and, consequently,
“4th. That the system of the board of engineers comprises works which are
unnecessarily large for the purposes which they have to fulfil.”
Owing to these strictures, the House of Representatives, by resolutions of
April 9, 1840, called upon the War Department for a report of a full and con-
nected system of national defence. ‘The duty was committed by the Secretary
of War to a board of officers of the army and navy, among whom was Colonel
Totten, and by whom the report. was drawn up. It was entirely approved by
the Secretary of War, Mr. Poinsett, and is universally admitted to be one of the
most able and comprehensive expositions of the whole subject of sea-coast de-
fence extant, and a complete refutation of the objections made to our existing
system. ‘The discussion of the first and principal proposition—that of defence
by the navy—is so interesting and instructive that, though long, I venture to
quote it :
“The opinion that the navy is the true defence of the country is so aceept-
able and popular, and is sustained by such high authority, that it demands a
careful examination.
« Before going into this examination, we will premise that by the term ‘navy’
is here meant, we suppose, line-of-battle ships, frigates, smaller sailing vessels,
and armed steamships, omitting vessels constructed for local uses merely, such
as floating batteries.
“For the purpose of first considering this proposition in its simplest terms,
we will begin by supposing the nation to possess but a single seaport, and that
this is to be defended by a fleet alone.
“ By remaining constantly within this port, our fleet would be certain of meet- —
ing the enemy, should he assail it. But if inferior to the enemy, there would
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 145
be no reason to look for a successful defence; and as there would be no escape
for the defeated vessels, the presence of the fleet, instead of averting the issue,
would only render it the more calamitous.
«Should our fleet be equal to the enemy’s, the defence might be complete,
and it probably would be so. Still, hazard, some of the many mishaps liable to
attend contests of this nature, might decide against us; and in that event, the
consequences would be even more disastrous than on the preceding supposition.
Tn this case the chances of victory to the two parties would be equal, but the con-
sequences very unequal. It might be the enemy’s fate to lose his whole fleet.
but he could lose nothing more; while we in a similar attempt would lose not
only the whole fleet, but also the object that the fleet was designed to protect.
“Tf superior to the enemy, the defence of the port would in all respects be
complete. But instead of making an attack, the enemy would, in such case,
employ himself in cutting up our commerce on the ocean; and nothing could be
done to protect this commerce without leaving the port in a condition to be suc-
cessfully assailed.
“ In either of the above cases the fleet might await the enemy in front of the
harbor, instead of lying within. But no advantage is apparent from such
arrangement, and there would be superadded the risk of being injured by tem-
pests, and thereby being disqualified for the duty of defence, or of being driven
off the coast by gales of wind, thus for a time removing all opposition.
“Tn the same cases also, especially when equal or superior to the enemy, our
fleet, depending on having correct and timely notice as to the position and state
of preparation of the enemy’s forces, might think proper to meet him at the out-
let of his own port, or intercept him on his way, instead of awaiting him within
or off our own harbor. Here it must-be noticed that*the enemy, like ourselves,
is supposed to possess a single harbor only; but, having protected it by other
means, that his navy is disposable for offensive operations. If it were attempted
thus to shut him within his own port, he, in any ease but that of decided infe-
riority, would not hesitate to come out and risk a battle; because, if defeated, he
could retire under shelter of his defences to refit; and if sucegssful, he could
proceed with a small portion of his foree—even a single vessel would sutiice—
to the capture of our port now defenceless, while, with the remainder, he would
follow up his advantage over our defeated vessels, not failing to pursue into
their harbor should they return thither.
« Actual superiority on our part would keep the enemy from volunteering a
battle; but it would be indispensable that the superiority be steadily main-
tained, and that the superior fleet be constantly present. If driven off by tem-
pests, or absent from any other cause, the blockaded fleet would escape, when it
would be necessary for our fleet to fly back to the defence of its own port.
Experience abundantly proves, moreover, that it is in vain to attempt to shut a
hostile squadron in port for any length of time. It seems, then, that whether
we defend by remaining at home, or by shutting the enemy’s fleet within his
own harbor, actual superiority in vessels is indispensable to the security of our
own port.
“With this superiority the defence will be complete, provided our fleet re-
mains within its harbor. But then all the commerce: of the country upon the:
ocean must be left to its fate; and no attempt can be made to react offensively
against the foe, unless we can control the chances of finding the enemy’s fleet:
within his port, and the still more uncertain chance of keeping him there; the
escape of a single vessel being sufficient to cause the loss of our harbor. Let
us next see what will be the state of the question on the supposition of numer:
ous important ports on either side, instead of a single one, relying on our part
still exclusively on a navy.
“Tn order to examine this question, we will suppose our adversary to be for-
tified in all his harbors, and possessed of available naval means, equal to our
Ors
146 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
own. This is certainly a fair supposition ; because what is assumed as regards
his harbors is true of all maritime nations, except the United States ; and as re-
gards naval means, it is elevating our own strength considerably above its pres-
ent measure, and above that it is likely to attain for years.
“ Being thus relatively situated, the first difference that strikes us is, that the
enemy, believing all his ports to be safe without the presence of his vessels, sets
himself at once about making our seas and shores the theatre of operations,
while we are left without choice in the matter; for if he thinks proper to come,
and we are not present, he attains his object without resistance.
“The next, difference is, that while the enemy (saving only the opposition of
Providence) is certain to fall upon the single point, or the many points he may
have seleeted, there will exist no previous indications of his particular choice,
and, consequently, no reason for preparing our defence on one point rather than
another; so that the chances of not being present and ready on his arrival are
directly in proportion to the number of our ports—that isto say, the greater the
number of ports, the greater the number of chances that he will meet no opposi-
tion whatever.
“ Another difference is, that the enemy can choose the mode of warfare as
well as the plan of operations, leaving as little option to us in the one case as in
the other. It will be necessary for us to act, in the first instance, on the suppo-
sition that an assault will be made with his entire fleet; because, should we act
otherwise, his coming in that array would involve both fleet and coast in inev-
itable defeat aud ruin. Being in this state of concentration, then, should the
enemy have any apprehensions about the result of a general engagement, should
he be unwilling to put anything at hazard, or should he, for any other reason,
prefer acting by detachments, he can, on approaching the coast, disperse his
force into small squadrons and single ships, and make simultaneous attacks on
numerous points. ‘These enterprises would be speedily consummated, because,
as the single point occupied by our fleet would be avoided, all the detachments
would be unopposed; and after a few hours devoted to burning shipping, or
public establishments, and taking in spoil, the several expeditions would leave
the coast for some convenient 1endezvous, whence they might return, either in
fleet or in detachments, to visit other portions with the scourge.
“Ts it insisted that our fleet might, notwithstanding, be so arranged as to
mect these enterprises ?
« As it cannot be denied that the enemy may select his point of attack out of
the whole extent of coast, where is the prescience that can indicate the spot ?
And if it cannot be foretold, how is that ubiquity to be imparted that shall
always place our fleet-in the path of the advancing foe? Suppose we attempt
to cover the coast by cruising in front of it, shall we sweep its whole length ?
—a distance scarcely less than that which the enemy must traverse in passing
from his coast to ours. Must the Gulf of Mexico be swept as well as the
Atlantic ; or shall we give up the Guli to the enemy’ Shall we cover the
southern cities, or give them up also? We must unquestionably do one of
two things: either relinquish a great extent of coast, confining our cruisers to a
small portion only, or include so much that the chances of intercepting an enemy
would seem to be out of the question.”
The report then goes on to discuss the uses for defensive purposes of gun-
boats, floating batteries and steam batteries, as distinguished from the navy
proper. Admitting their usefulness, and, even in some cases, their necessity, it
argues with great foree that they are not a substitute for and cannot supersede
fortifications, and it sums up its argument concerning naval defence with the
following broad propositions, to which it challenges opposition :
“Ist. If the sea-coast is to be defended by naval means exclusively, the de-
fensive force at each point deemed worthy of protection must be at least equal
wn power to the attacking force.
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 147
«9d. As from the nature of the case there can be no reason for expecting an
attack on one of these points rather than on another, and no time for transter-
ring our state of preparation from one to another after an attack has been de-
clared, each of them must have assigned to it the requisite means ; and,
“3d. Consequently this system demands a power in the defence as many
times greater than that in the attack as there are points to be covered.
«There has been but one practice among nations as to the defence of ports
and harbors, and that has been a resort to fortifications. All the experience
that history exhibits is on one side only; it is the opposition of forts or other
works, comprehended by the term fortification, to attack by vessels, and al-
though history affords some instances wherein this defence has not availed, we
see that the resort is still the same. No nation omits covering the exposed
points upon her seaboard with fortifications, nor hesitates in confiding in them. ”
The most prominent cases of such successful attacks, viz. Copenhagen, Al-
giers, San Juan de Ulloa, &c., are then described and discussed, to show that
the deductions drawn from them are erroneous, or that they are not cases in
point, or that the disastrous result has been owing to the neglected condition,
imperfect armament, or unskilful and inadequate defence of the forts.
The report, of which I have given some of the main points, may be said to
have silenced opposition to our system of fortifications for the next ten years ;
but, in a form modified by the alleged changes in the condition of the country,
increase of population, construction of railroads, &c., it again found expression
in a resolution of Congress in 1851; and the Secretary of War, to enable him-
self to respond, called upon numerous distinguished army and navy officers for
an expression of their opinions. ‘The following questions were addressed to sev-
eral of the principal engineer officers, among whom the chief of corps, General
Totten:
“1st. How far the invention and extension of railroads have superseded or
diminished the necessity of fortifications on the seaboard ? :
“2d. In what manner and to what extent the navigation of the ocean by
steam, and particularly the application of steam to vessels of war, and recent
improvements in artillery, and other military inventions and discoveries, affect
this question ?
“3d. How far vessels of war, steam batteries, ordinary merchant ships and
steamers, and other temporary expedients, can be relied upon as a substitute
for permanent fortifications for the defence of our seaports ?
“Ath. How far the increase of population on the northern frontier and of the
mercantile marine on the northern lakes obviates or diminishes the necessity of
continuing the system of fortifications on these Jakes ?”
General Totten’s response to these critical interrogations is, as usual with
him when this great subject has to be dealt with, full and exhaustive. The
following pithy paragraphs exhibit his views on the influence of railroads :
‘Suppose a hostile fleet to lie in front of the city of New York—which
nothing would prevent, if the channels of approach were not fortified—in what
way could the 100,000 or 200,000 new men poured into the city and environs
by railroads, although armed with muskets and field-pieces, aid the half-million
of people already there? It seems to me very clear that these additional forees
would, like the population of the city, be utterly powerless in the way of resist-
ance, with any means at their command, and, if resistance were attempted by
the city, would but serve to swell the list of casualties, unless they should at
once retreat beyond the range of fire. If the enemy’s expedition were intended,
according to the second supposed mode of attack, for invasion, or occupation for
some time, of a portion of the country, then in many places this resource of
railroads would be of value, because then the duty of defence would fall upon
the army and militia of the country, and these communications would sweil
their numbers.
148 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN,
“But of all circumstances of danger to the coast, this chance of an attempt
by an enemy to land and march any distance into a populous district is least to
be regarded, whether there be or be not such speedy mode of receiving re-en-
forcements, and our system of fortifications has little to do with any such dan-
ger. In preparing against maritime assaults, the security of the points to be
covered is considered to be greatly augmented whenever the defence can be so
arranged as to oblige an enemy to land at some distance; for the reason that
opportunity is thereby allowed, in the only possible way, for the spirit and
enterprise of the people to come into play. .
‘Instead of being designed to prevent a landing upon any part of the coast,
as Many seem to suppose, and some allege in proof of extravagant views on the
part of the system of defence, the system often leaves this landing as an open
alternative to the enemy, and aims so to cover the really important and dan-
gerous points as to necessitate a distant landing and a march towards the object
through the people. It is because the expedition would easily accomplish its
object without landing, and without allSwing the population to partake in the
defence, that the fortifications are resorted to. For instance, without Fort Del-
aware, or some other fort low down on Delaware bay, an enemy could place
his fleet of steamers in front of Philadelphia by the time his appearance on the
coast had been well announced throughout the city. And in spite of all New
Jersey, Delaware, and lower Pennsylvania, he could levy his contributions, and
burn the navy yard and shipping, and be away, ina few hours. But being
obliged, by the fort above mentioned, to land full forty miles below the city,
the resistance to his march may be safely left to the courage and patriotism that
will find ample time to array themselves in opposition. ”
Concerning the application of steam to vessels of war he says:
“The application of steam to vessels of war acts upon the question of sea-
coast defence both beneficially and injuriously. It acts injuriously in several
ways; but chiefly, first, by the suddenness and surprise with which vessels may
fall upon their object, and pass from one object to another, in spite of distance,
climate, and season; and, secondly, by their ability to navigate shallow waters.
“The first property, by which squadrons may run into our harbors, out-
stripping all warnings of their approach, affords no chance for impromptu prepa-
rations; accordingly, whatever our preparations are to be, they should precede
the war. If seems past all belief that a nation having in commission—as
France and England always have—a large number of war-steamers, ready for
distant servicein twenty-four hours, receiving their orders by telegraph, capable
of uniting in squadrons, andin two or three days at most speeding on their sev-
eral paths to fall upon undefended ports—it is not to be expected, I say, that
they should delay such enterprises until temporary resorts could be got ready
to receive them. And yet there are those who insist that we should leave
defensive measures to a state of war—that we should let the day supply the
need!
‘«Tnadequate as all such measures must prove, there would not be time to
arrange even these. By the second property, due to their light draught of water,
these vessels will oblige the defence to be extended in some form to passages
or channels or shoals that were before adequately guarded by their shallowness.
The bars at the mouth of the Mississippi formerly excluded all but small ves-
sels-of-war, and the strong current of the river made the ascent of sailing ves-
sels exceedingly uncertain and tedious. Now these bars and currents are imped-
iments no longer; and all the armed steamers of Great Britain and France
might be formed in array in face of the city of New Orleans before a rumor ot
their approach had been heard.
«Had the English expedition of 1814, attended by a squadron of armed
steamers, arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi, a few transports might have
been taken in tow, and in a few hours the whole army would have been before
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 149
the city. Or twelve or fifteen such steamers could have carried the whole army
up in half a day, without the delay of transports. Will it be contended that
the attack in that form would have been repulsed with the means then in Gen-
eral Jackson’s hands? Would the landing, or even the presence on board these
steamships, of the British troops have been necessary to burn the city or put it
under contribution? Is there anything now, but the existence of forts on the
river, to prevent the success of such an attack by fifteen or twenty steamers of
war, allured there by the vastly increased magnitude of the spoil? ”’*
While the enemy’s means of attack are thus enhanced by the use of war
steamers, General ‘lotten contends that they cannot be relied upon, as a substi-
tute for fortifications, for defence.
“T do not assert,”’ he says, ‘ that armed vessels would not be useful in coast
_defenee. Such an idea would be absurd. I shall even have occasion to show
a necessity for this kind of force, in certain exceptional cases. It is the general
proposition, viz., that armed vessels, and not fortifications, are the proper defences
for our vulnerable points—a proposition the more dangerous, because seem-
ingly in such accordance with the well-tried prowess and heroic achievements
of the navy, that we have now to controvert.
“Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans
are, we will suppose, to be guarded, not by forts, but by these vessels, on the
occurrence of a war with a nation possessing large naval means. We know
that it is no effort for such nations to despatch a fleet of twenty line-of-battle
ships and frigates, or an equal number of war steamers, or even the combined
mass—both fleets in one.
* * % * * * x. *
“What, then, shall we do at the above-named ports severally? Each is
_ justly felt to be an object worthy of an enemy’s efforts, and each would be cul-
pable in sending elsewhere any part of the force required for its own defence.
Each, therefore, maintains a naval force equal, at least, to that the enemy is
judged to be able to send promptly against it. Omitting any provision for
other places scarcely less important, what is the result? It is, that we main-
tain within the harbors of, or at the entrance to, these places, chained down to
this passive defence, a force at least six times as large as that of the enemy.
“ He does not hesitate to leave his port, because it will be protected in his
absence by its fortifications, which also afford him a sure refuge on his return.
He sails about the ocean, depredating upon our commerce with his privateers
and small cruisers, putting our small places to ransom, and in other ways fol-
lowing up appropriate duties; all which is accomplished without risk, be-
cause our fleet, although of enormous magnitude, must cling to ports which
have no other defence than ‘that afforded by their presence. ‘Vhey cannot com-
bine against him singly, for they cannot know where he is; and must not,
moreover, abandon the object which they were expressly provided to guard.
“Tt would really seem that there could not be a more impolitic, inethcient,
and dangerous system, as there could not certainly be a more expensive one.”
I have thus extensively quoted from the reports of General Totten, because
they are themselves the best expressions of the life labors and services of the
subject of our memoir, and because I think they treat of matters which should
be, in an eminent degree, interesting to the members of this National Academy,
and which, moreover, should demand its attention. :
To preserve the continuity of my subject, I have followed these reports down
toa late date. It is necessary now to revert to an earlier period. It has
* The experience of the rebellion has proved the truth of General Totten’s words. The
moment the forts were passed, the city of New Orleans was, notwithstanding the land forees
under Lovell, at Commodore Farragut’s mercy. I have alluded elsewhere to the failure of
the forts.
150 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
already been observed that, as soon as the original board of engineers had
sufficiently matured the general system of defence, and completed plans for the
works first required, its members applied themselves to the duty of construe-
tion. In 1828 General (then Colonel) Totten took charge of the construction
of Fort Adams, Newport harbor, and continued on this duty, making his resi-
dence in the town of Newport, until December, 1838, the date of his appoint-
ment as chief of the corps of engineers. ‘This work, the second in magnitude
of the fortifications of the United States, is one of the best monuments of his
genius as a military engineer. From its peculiar relations to the land defence,
it called for the application of most of those rules of the art and many of those
special arrangements which form the themes of treatises upon “ fortification,”
and which, generally, have but a very limited application to works of harbor
defence. In these respects it has no parallel with us; and in the treatment of
the case and happy adaptation of means to the end, Colonel Totten exhibited a
mastery of all the details of the art, which proves his technical skill and minute
knowledge to be fully equal to the power of broad generalization I have already
endeavored to illustrate. But Colonel Totten found here yet another field for
professional usefulness—another track to explore. The art of the civil engi-
neer (I use the phrase in its application to mere construction, whether it be of a
military or civil work) was yet in its infancy in this country. Our resources
in building materials were almost unknown, their qualities and adaptabilities to
different purposes of construction undeveloped. ‘Thus far the matter had ex-
cited little attention; the building material, whether brick or stone, lime or tim-
ber, nearest at hand was indiscriminately used, and its aggregation left much to
the skill of the mechanie. In commencing constructions on so great a scale, it
was of the first importance that the work should be both durable and econom-
ical—a result only to be attained by the most careful selection of materials, and
the most skilful manipulation. Besides, our forts called for arrangements
unknown in other branches of building—arrangements for which the execution
and the most suitable materials had to be studied out ab initio, since on many of
these points there were neither experience nor extant rules to guide.
In the years 1830 and 1831 a series of experiments was instituted by Colo-
nel Totten at Fort Adams, on the expansion and contraction of building stone
by natural changes of temperature, and the effects of these variations on the
cements employed to secure the joints of stone copings. An account of them
was prepared under his direction by Lieutenant (now Professor) W. H. C. Bart-
lett, a member of this Academy, and published in the American Journal of
Science for July, 1832. The methods employed were at once simple and inge-
nious, and the result was such as to leave no doubt that in this climate the
joints of copings formed of stone of four or five feet in length will always be
insecure, no matter what description of cement may be employed to close them.
This result is one of great practical importance. Previously to the experimen-
tal examination of the subject by Colonel 'Votten, the walls of our most expen-
sive works of masonry were protected by copings cemented at their joints; and
while the failure of the cement was constantly noticed, the cause of the failure
was not understood. The experiments showed that the changes of longitudinal
dimensions of granite coping-stones, five feet only in length, under the extreme
temperatures to which they were exposed at Newport, would be sufficient to pul-
verize the hardest cement between them, or to leave cracks in it thicker than com-
mon pasteboard. With marble as a material, these destructive effects are con-
siderably increased, and with sandstone, nearly doubled.
About the same time Colonel Totten caused some experiments to be made to
ascertain the relative stiffness and strength of the following kinds of timber,
viz: White pine, (Pinus strobus,) Spruce, (Abies nigra,) ‘and southern pine,
(Pinus australus ), also called long-leaved pine’
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 151
These experiments, made by his assistant, Lieutenant T. 8. Brown, of the
corps of engineers, were published in the American Journal of Science and
Art, and afterwards, having been revised by the author, in the Journal of the
Franklin Institute, a note being added, the calculations extended, and practical
inferences drawn therefrom. ‘This memoir and additions are found iu vol. vii,
new series, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1831. Lieutenant Brown’s account
concludes with the following remarks :
“Jn Tredgold’s Carpentry, and other similar works, may be found the con-
stant numbers (a) and (c) for nearly all the kinds of wood useful in the arts ;
but besides that the numbers are in many instances calculated from insufficient
experiments, most of the specimens used in the trials were of Kuropean growth,
and of course the results obtained are inapplicable to American timber, though
bearing the same name. It is much to be desired that numerous and accurate
experiments be made in this country by those having the requisite zeal and
opportunities ; our architects will then know with certainty the qualities of the
different kinds of woods they are using, and instead of working at hazard and
in the dark, as they now too often do, they will be guided by the sure light of
practical science to certain and definite results. If these experiments contrib-
ute ever so little to the attainment of so important a result, the object of their
publication will be fully accomplished. ”
A subject of such vital importance in the art of construction as the composi-
tion of mortars could not fail to invite, or rather compel, the researches of Colo-
nel Totien. No species of masonry is subject to such severe deteriorating influ-
ences as the walls and arches of fortifications, especially in our climate; so
severe, indeed, that they almost drive the engineer to despair. Next only to
the importance of having the building stones or bricks of a suitable character, is
that of uniting them by a strong and durable mortar. Few persons whose
attention has not been called to the subject conceive its magnitude, the
variety of materials it embraces, and the laborious investigations to which it
has given rise. Colonel Totten commenced his researches at an early date,
and continued them actively during the whole period of his connexion with Fort
Adams.
His work on “ Hydraulic and Common Mortars”? was publisned in 1838 by
the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. It contains, besides original experi-
ments and observations on mortars, hydraulic cements and concretes, trausla-
tions of essays by ‘T'reussart, Pitot, and Courtois, the best French writers on
the same subject, and constitutes to this day an authority relied on by Amer-
ican engineers. Colonel Totten’s experiments extend over the period from 1825
to 1838; they are especially valuable for the variety of limes and cements, and
the tests of different modes of slacking the lime, mixing the mortars, and pre-
paring the cements and coneretes. ‘Ihe mortars were tested, after periods ran-
ging trom five months to four years and five months, for tenacity, by the force
required to separate two bricks joined together by means of them, and for hard-
ness by the weight which they would support, applied over a small circular
area. ‘The experiments on concretes or factitious stones are equally compre-
hensive, being directed to the composition and consistency of the cement, whether
best used as a stiff mortar or a semi-fluid grout; to the effect of additions of
common lime and sand or rounded pebbles and gravel, and to ascertaining the
proportion of each that would be used to the best advantage. ‘The results de-
veloped by these investigations are of the greatest value, and having been ap-
plied in the construction of the fort, have now had the test of many year’s ex-
perience.
It would be almost impossible to enumerate the various objects of Colonel
Totten’s researches while at Newport. ‘here is scarce a subject connected
with the art or science of the engineer, civil or military, which did not engage
152 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
his attention, and of which he has not left some record. The thickness of sus-
taining walls, the thrust of arches, among the more important, and the composi-
tion of stuccoes, of paints, lackers, washes for stone or brick work, among the
less so, may here be mentioned.
Perhaps no period of his life is so interesting and so affectionately remem-
bered by his professional associates. Indeed, a large proportion of the young
officers of the corps of those days passed a portion of their time under his com-
mand, and acquired their first professional experience in the performance of
duties under his eye and direction. ‘The disposition to cultivate science, phys-
ical and natural, led him to original researches, while his influence stimulated
and led to improvement the educated young men who from time to time came
into his military family. Fond of exercise, bodily and mental, he sought in
natural history, as in geology, mineralogy, and conchology, objects for the
long walks and drives conducive to health, while the arrangement of the speci-
mens, their care and classification, and the study of the babits of the animals
which occupied the shells, gave scope to his wonderful powers of observation.
Instead of finding his young officers a trouble, he was fond of their companion-
ship, suggesting modes and objects of experiment, and encouraging them to do
so likewise, thus cultivating originality of thought. His laboratory was at
their service, and his companionship and example at their disposal. After a
day’s labor he retired to this laboratory, glad to have with him such of the young
companions of the day as desired to join him. ‘The honored president of this
Academy can recollect, year after year, the computations, under Colonel Totten’s
direction, of the thickness of revetments, the analysis of minerals collected in
the field, classifications of shells gathered in days’ walks on the seashore, dis-
cussions of the curious structure of geological specimens in the neighborhood of
Newport, and of the curious mineralogical specimens of the upper portion of
Rhode Island, which he encouraged them to find. So upon the fort itself, the
various researches which I have described were marked out for successive ex-
perimenting, with a generosity to his assistants which almost persuaded them
that they were original with them. 'The determination of the measures used in
laying out the fort, and the.practical apparatus employed in the measurements,
received his careful study. ‘The practical character of these works impressed
themselves upon the minds of the young officers, and furnished the fitting com-
plement to the theoretical training received at West Point.
Not least pleasant among the memories of this period of Colonel Totten’s life,
to those who had the good fortune to be associated with him, is the recollection
of the social enjoyments of his house. Married in 1816 to Catlyna Pearson, of
Albany, he was surrounded by a young family, among whom his happiest
moments were spent, and to whom he was everything that such a relation can
imply. None could be happier in his social intercourse. Genial and eminently
hospitable, he cultivated as a duty those smaller amenities of society by which
the cares of life are lightened and its joys augmented. His house was the
home of his friends, and was seldom without some one of them. ‘Though dig-
nified and courteously reserved in his intercourse with the external world, few
more highly enjoyed real humor, or could with more true bonhommie give them-
selves up to the gayety of the moment. In his relations to his young officers he
was kind and affable, encouraging freedom of expression, and inviting inquiry
in everything that related to professional matters, while there was always that
in his manner which inspired the most profound respect and forbade undue lev-
ity of conduct in his presence.
Before quitting the scene of so important a portion of Colonel Totten’s official
labors, it is proper to remark that, in addition to the duties of his particular
charge, he, as a member and for the last six years president of the board of
engineers, was engaged in the planning of the new works for which Congress
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 153
from time to time made the necessary appropriations.* ‘To this duty he usually
devoted the winter months, during which all construction on Fort Adams was
suspended. In the execution of his designs he was usually assisted by young
officers of the corps, who found therein a practical application of the theoretical
knowledge acquired at West Point instructive and useful.
The works of harbor improvement on the seaboard and on the lakes were
likewise under ‘the control and direction of the Engineer Bureau ; and Colonel
Tutten, though not directly engaged therein, was not infrequently called on to
inspect and advise concerning them. Most of these, and especially those of the
lake shores, afforded curious and interesting problems in this branch of civil
engineering, and his reports and notes on these subjects, yet extant, are addi-
tional proofs of the wide range of his professional knowledge and of his powers
of accurate observation and of skilful deduction from the phenomena of na-
ture.
Colonel Totten was appointed colonel of the corps of engineers and Chief
Engineer December 7, 1838. At this time the construction of Fort Adams
was so far advanced towards completion as to nee@ no longer his personal super-
vision, and the city of Washington became thenceforth his home and the seat of
his official duties. Identified, as we have seen, with the origin and growth of
the great system of sea-coast defence of the United States, it was eminently
proper that he should become the head of that bureau of the War Department
to which its execution was committed, and no one could be more eminently fitted
for that important station.
At the date of his appointment the system of coast defence had been for about
twenty years in progress of construction, and during that period most of those
ports and harbors of the United States deemed most important to ourselves or
most assailable by a naval foe had been, at least, partially fortified. At many
such points, indeed, no new work had been as yet constructed, owing to the
existence of forts ot batteries more or less adequate built before or during the
war of 1812. ‘These works, where possible, were absorbed into the new sys-
tem with some repairs and alterations. Among such points may be mentioned
the harbors of Portland, Portsmouth,- New London, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Charleston. New and powerful works had, however, been built or far
advanced to completion, for the defence of Boston, Newport, New York, Hamp-
ton Roads, the Savannah river, Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans. But
the strictures on the system, to which we have before made reference, proceed-
ing from such an authority as the Secretary of War and sanctioned by the
President, had not failed to shake the confidence of Congress and of the people.
For several years the annual appropriations had been wholly denied or made
so inadequately that the work had languished and at some points had been
wholly suspended. But however much opposition may grow up in time of pro-
found peace, no sooner is there a probability of seeing a foe at our doors than
- all eyes are turned to these protecting works, and the most urgent demands are
made that our seaport towns shall be speedily put “in a state of defence.”’
Such an impulse was given by the Maine boundary and McLeod questions,
soon after the advent of Colonel Totten to the Chief Engineership. In fulfill-
ing the urgent duty which thus devolved upon him, he did not content himself
with the mere issuing of orders from his office at, Washington. He made it his
business to inspect personally the works, and in less than two years, besides
* By the Regulations, the local engineer officer, upon whom the construction of the pro-
posed work was to devolve, was ex officio a member of the board. This brought together
during the winter months engineer officers from various parts of the country—from the
shores of the Gulf,'from the seaboard of North and South Carolina and Georgia, as well as
from nearer points, and added not a little to the charm of the professional and social life of
the young engineer officers at Newport.
154 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
the enormous office labor he found necessary to attend to on the first assump-
tion of charge of the bureau, he had visited every fort and battery on the sea-
coast of the United States. His inspections were not superficial and hasty ;
they were most thorough and searching. His investigations embraced, at the
same time, the general scope and purpose of the work, its adaptability to its
great objects, and the minntest detail in its construction. It was now that
the country derived the full benefit of his indefatigable researches while at
Newport
I have already alluded to the lack of knowledge and experience in this coun-
try of the art of construction, especially in its applications to the peculiarities of
fortification. ‘To supply this lack was a great end of Colonel Totten’s labors
at Fort Adams. At few other points did the locality or circumstances of the
construction render practicable such researches. This remark will apply par-
ticularly to the works on the Gulf of Mexico. 'The regions’ bordering the Gulf
were, at the close of the war of 1812, but recent acquisitions to the territory of
the United States. Sparsely populated and isulated from the rest of the Union
as (before the application of gteam to the navigation of the Mississippi) they
were, they would be defended, if defended at. all, only by the aid of fortifica-
tions. ‘Vhe fact that New Orleans had been almost wrenched from our grasp,
and the impression then everywhere felt that if it had been captured it would
not have been relinquished, stimulated the government to secure the possession
of this important place and of other strategic points on the Gulf by immediate
fortification. Accordingly, designs for works—mostly prepared by General
Bernard—-were among the first labors of the board of engineers, and the forts
on the river and lake approaches to New Orleans, at the entrances to Mobile
bay and Pensacola harbor, were almost simultaneously commenced. Around
New Orleans especially the engineers had to contend with formidable difficul-
ties. ‘The deadly climate, the treacherous soil, on which no art could build a
structure so massive as a fortification that should not sink one or more feet,
warping and dislocating the walls and arches, the difficulties of procuring the
services of mechanics and laborers, the want of building materials, &e., all com-
bined to make construction exceedingly difficult, to forbid any of its niceties, and -
to hinder all research or experiment. Some of these works had been entirely
finished at the period we have arrived at, others nearly so, and left to “ settle”
before the weight of the earthen parapets was added.
Considering all these unfavorable circumstances, these works had been built
in a manner creditable to the energy and skill of the engineers; but a few
years’ neglect, aided by a damp and tropical climate, had given many of them
an appearance which, to the superficial observer, promised anything but effi-
ciency. Indeed, it was a popular belief in New Orleans at this time that Fort
Jackson, on the Mississippi, had sunk so much that its guns could not be brought
to bear on the river—a belief doubtless due to the unnecessarily highness of the
levees by which it had been surrounded to protect its site from inundation, and
to the rapid growth of vegetation on and about the fort. Such was the condi-
tion of this work when Colonel Totten first visited it in 1841, and the author
of this paper, who had but recently taken charge of it, has yet a vivid recollec-
tion of the thorough inspections of this and other works, the tedious voyages in
open boats through the intricate “bayou” navigation about New Orleans, in
company with his chief, as well as the copious and most minute instruations
which he received. Destitute of American experience on such points, the
designer had followed European precedents, or the constructing engineer had
been left to his own devices as to much that relates to the interior arrangements.
The wood-work of magazines, inadequately ventilated, had rotted and fallen in
ruins; the covering of the bomb-proof casemates, imperfectly understood, had
failed to exclude water, which percolated through the piers and arches, or
gathered in muddy pools on the floors. ‘The work to be done to bring the forts
*
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 155
to speedy efficiency was vast; embrasures and floors of casemates were to be
raised to compensate the settlement the work had undergone; earth to be
removed from the arches,in order to repair or renew the roofing; magazines
and quarters to be refitted, and all this before a gun could be mounted in a
proper manner. On all these points Colonel Totten was rich in the experience
of his long researches, and ready at once to give the proper directions. Follow-
ing his detailed instructions, the works speedily reached such a condition of
efficiency as to permit the mounting and service of their guns.*
What the writer here relates from his own experience at New Orleans serves
but to illustrate the indefatigable labors and personal agency of Colonel Totten
at this period, along the whole seaboard of the United States, in bringing all
its ports and harbors into a defensible condition. Nor should I confine these
attributes to any particular period. During the whole time of his chief engi-
neership he continued the same laborious supervision. Generally once in about
every two years he inspected every fort of the United States, and scareely
was the local engineer officer more thoroughly familiar with each detail of his
own particular works than was the Chief Engineer with those of all under charge
of the Engineer bureau. Besides attending to the routine duties of his office at
Washington, he found time to design plans for new works, as well as for altera-
tions or enlargement of old ones. An admirable draughtsman, executing his
work with a delicacy and finish that defied competition on the part of his sub-
ordinates, he would be usually found, if visited at his office, engaged at
his drawing-table. - Indeed, if he had a fault as Chief Engineer, it was the
habit of doing everything himself. It was contemplated by the Regulations
lations that all plans of fortifications should be made by a board of engineers,
and General Totten, in one of his reports, alludes to the fact that this has
not always been the case, in these words: “In rare cases it has happened that
plans have been made under the particular direction of the Chief Engineer, owing
to the difficulty, at moments, of drawing the widely dispersed members of the
board from their individual trusts.” It may be said, too, in justice to him, that
when he assumed controi of the bureau, it was almost indispensable to take
much upon himself, in the direction of the repairs and prosecution of many of
the works, owing to the great pressure thrown upon the corps by the circum-
stances of the period, aud the want of a sufficient number of experienced
officers.
The excitement produced by the anticipation of war with England was fol-
lowed by an actual war with a weak neighbor, a war inaugurated by the same
influences which, in a more potent form, produced the rebellion, or rather of
which the rebellion was but the legitimate and natural sequel. Called on by
General Scott, who reposed in his professional skill the most unbounded confi-
dence, Colonel Totten assumed, in 1847, the immediate control of the engineer-
ing operations of the army destined to invade the Mexican capital, directing in
this capacity the siege of Vera Cruz. For his successful services he was
breveted a brigadier general, March 29, 1847, “for gallant and meritorious
conduct at the siege of Vera Cruz.” Having thus successfully accomplished
the special task for which he had been selected, he left the army and resumed
his station at Washington.
In addition to the onerous duties of his office, involving, besides the labors
described, the inspectorship and supervision of the Military Academy, his
position and high reputation subjected him to calls for incidental labors by the
goverument, by the States, or by municipal bodies. A few months prior to his
——~s.-—$§
* When Forts Jackson and Philip, on the Mississippi, were attacked by the fleets of Com-
manders Farragut and Porter, they were not provided with the armaments intended for them,
and the garrisons were demoralized by a long bombardment. It is not in place to discuss
this subject here.
156 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
appointment as Chief Engineer, 1838, he was, at the invitation of the Secretary
of the Navy, ordered to visit the navy yard at Pensacola, and to prepare plans
for dry-docks, wharves, sea-walls, and other improvements. Save a wretched
failure in the shape of a wharf, the place—a navy yard ia name—had been, up
to this period, destitute of everything that characterizes such an establishment,
except an imposing row of officers’ quarters, and some few storehouses. A
board of naval officers had been convened two years previously to consider the
wants of the yard, and had recommended an extensive system of improvements,
involving, among other things, no less than four dry-docks. Such constructions,
reaching thirty or more fect below the level of low water in the loose sand of
the bay shores, were difficult, demanding all the resources of the engineer, and
it was on account of General Totten’s eminent abilities and high authority in
such matters that the Navy Department had recourse to his services. He made
areport on the manner of construction, with plans which, if I mistake not, have
been a guide in the subsequent operations. Unfortunately, to this day no per-
manent dry-dock exists, a floating wooden one having, through some influence,
been substituted, at enormous expense, for the intended masonry structure.*
The legislature of the State of New York having, March 30, 1855, passed
“An act for the appointment of a commission for the preservation of the harbor
of New York from encroachments, and to prevent obstructions to the necessary
navigation thereof,” the commission so appointed invited and obtained the co-
operation, as an “advisory council,” of General ‘Totten, Professor Bache, and
Commander Davis, United States navy. The nature of the services thus ren-
dered is best understood by reference to the reports of the commissioners them-
selves:
“The distinguished reputation of General Totten, Professor Bache, and
Commander Davis for scientific attainments, their diversified experience in the
construction of hydraulic works, and long observation of the influence of tidal
currents in the formation and removal of shoals, indicated them as the best
qualified to assist the commissioners in the discharge of their duties, while their
high personal character precluded the possibility of their advice being affected
by other than the single purpose of arriving at a just decision on the questions
submitted to them.” And again, after a particular allusion to the services of
Professor Bache: ‘It is the gratifying duty of the commissioners to present to
the notice of the legislature the important services which have been gratuitously
rendered to the State by General Joseph G. Totten, chief engineer of the
United States army, and Commander Charles H. Davis, of the United States
navy, who, with Professor Bache, formed the advisory council of the commis-
sioners. Animated by the single desire of preserving the port of New York
in all its usefulness, they brought to the consideration of the subjects referred
to them the diversified experience of many years spent in the examination and
improvement of harbors. ‘The several reports they have made on the exterior
lines, on the improvement of Hell Gate, and on the preservation of Gowanus
bay, are profound dissertations on the forees and actions of currents, and, while
they evince, in some degree, the extent of the labors of those gentlemen, they
demonstrate how just is the public estimate of their scientific attainments.”
Following the example of New York, Massachusetts soon organized a similar
commission for the port and harbor of Boston, on which the same gentlemen
were invited to serve, receiving similar testimonials of the high ‘value of their
services.
* The ‘‘ questionable shape’ and suspicious object of this novel craft, set afloat and towed
out into the bay by the rebels in 1861, caused anxious surmises on the part of Colonel Brown
and the gallant garrison of Fort Pickens, reminding us of the famous ‘‘ Battle of the Kegs”
of the Revolution. The probable object was to sink it in the channel to prevent the entrance
of our gunboats. But Colonel Brown’s interference prevented the accomplishment of the
design. It was abandoned by the rebels, and set fire to by Colonel Brown’s orders.
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 157
Of the many scientific men of the country who were associated with him in
such duties, (of whom most usually was our eminent president, ) none exhibited
greater zeal and assiduity, few took a more prominent and useful part. The
resolutions of the Light-house Board, on the occasion of his decease, which are
appended to this memoir, would be, with slight modifications, applicable ia
reference to all his connexions of a similar nature. Inflexible in his integrity,
uncompromising in his notions of duty, and watchful to the highest degree for
all the interests of the government in all that concerned his charge, it is not
strange that the shameless Floyd soon found him an obstacle to his peculiar
operations. He was virtually banished from his office, or at least relieved from
its duties, which he did not resume until Floyd left the War Department. He
took this opportunity—perhaps the very first and only release during his life-
time from the unceasing demand of duty—to visit Hurope in company with
Mrs. Totten, travelling through France, Italy, Germany, and England. n-
dued with those keen perceptions and that harmonious adjustment of faculties
which render the mind susceptible to the beautiful, whether in nature or art, he
was, in the true sense of the term, an artist. For music, for painting, for
sculpture, he had a high relish and a most accurate and discriminating judgment.
By such a one the treasures of art and antiquity of Europe can only be
adequately appreciated and enjoyed, as we know they were appreciated and
enjoyed by General Totten. He did not fail, however, to take the opportunity
to examine, as far as he was able, the fortifications of Europe, of the character
and peculiarities of which, however, he had little to learn. On his return he
was sent by Floyd to the Pacific coast, with directions to inspect the fortifica-
tions in construction, avd to report on the defensive requirements of that
region. This duty and the report thereon he executed in his usual thorough
and exhaustive manner. It furnished him with the opportunity to acquire the
same personal knowledge of all that concerned the seaboard defence of our
newly acquired territories on the Pacifie which he already possessed, beyond
any other man, in reference to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
In the year 1851 General Totten inaugurated, and continued through the years
1852, 1853, 1854, and 1855, a series of experiments at West Point ‘on the
effects of firing with heavy ordnance from casemate embrasures,” and also ‘on
the effects of firing against the same embrasures with various kinds of missiles.”
It will be interesting and conducive to a better understanding of the objects and
results of these experiments to say a few words as to the origin and meaning of
the term “casemate,” and to give an account of General Totten’s previous
labors in connexion with the ‘‘casemate embrasure.’”’ he word is from the
Spanish casa-mata, (a compound, most likely, of casa, house, and matar, to
kill; though it is said also to mean a low or hidden house; but the etymology
is not settled,) and seems to have been used to signify a countermine as well as
a concealed place, arranged in connexion with a fortification, for containing and
using a piece of artillery. According to Bardin* it appears to have been applied
to the double or triple tier of uncovered gun platforms used by the early Italian
and German engineers for flanking the ditch, as well as to vaulted galleries along
the searp wall. ‘lhe term finally came to mean, in fortification, any vaulted
room under the earthwork of the rampart or glacis, whether intended for service
of guns, orfor quarters of troops, or for containing stores. A gun casemate is
such a vault abutting against the scarp or countersearp wall through which an
“embrasure” is pierced to permit the discharge of the gun; and in the naval
service the term has been adopted to signify the part of an iron-clad vessel con-
taining the guns, and which is, for that reason, especially protected by the iron
plating. Hence the essential notion of the word seems to involve one or more of
the attributes of concealment, shelter, and destructive purpose.
* Dictionnaire de l’Armée de Terre, &c.
158 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
The use of the casemate, in some of its forms, for flanking purposes goes back
to Albert Durer and San Micheli, in the early part of the sixteenth century, and
it was resorted to by Vauban in his second and third systems, of which the
tower-bastions are casemated throughout. But it was reserved for the Marquis
de Montalembert, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to give it an
extraordinary development, and to make the casemate the essential element of
a system of fortification. ‘This “most intrepid of authors upon fortification ”
(as he is styled by Chasseloup) boldly attempted to apply to his art the same
principles by which Napoleon won his victories—the concentration of superior
forces upon the decisive poiats, In his projects we find, upon all parts where
there must be a decisive contest of artillery, an extraordinary concentration of
guns, amounting in some cases to ten times those of the attacking batteries, the
construction of which it is intended to prevent, or which shall be promptly over-
powered, if constructed. This concentration he effected, and could only effect,
by the use of casemates, upon which, numerous and well constructed, he bases
all the strength of his fortifications.
No author on this art has displayed greater genius or a greater affluence of
resources, and no author has given occasion for so much acrimonious discussion.
Rejected by the French, the principles of Montalembert have been made the
basis of the modern German, or “ Polygonal,” system.
For sea-coast fortification the casemates of Montalembert had a singular
applicability, aud he has the merit. at least, of being the first writer who has
seen in this branch of the art a subject of particular treatment, and who had given
special designs for forts and batteries ‘for the defence of ports.”
In no warlike structure was there so great a concentration of artillery as in a
ship-of-war, such as it was fifty oreventwenty years ago. And as there is no
limit to the number of ships which may be brought to bear upon a shore battery
save that of the range of artillery and the area of navigable water, it is easy to
see to what overwhelming hostile fire such a work may be subjected. On the
other hand, it frequently happens that the site otherwise most advantageous for
a battery is low and contracted, rendering any accumulation of guns impractica-
ble, if mounted on an ordinary rampart, and exposing the unprotected gunners
to the fire of the sharpshooters with which the enemy’s topmasts are filled.*
{t is no small merit of Montalembert to have devised a method of mounting
guns which should meet this case. Notwithstanding that the French corps of »
engineers rejected the system in its intended application, and disclaimed, as an
engineer, its author, it nevertheless constructed, in 1786, for the defence of the
roadstead and harbor of Cherbourg, forts which are in reality almost copied from
his designs.t Ifollowing the exampie of the French, other European nations
have adopted, for the defence of their seaports, works of the same character, of
which the forts of Cronstadt and Sebastopol, once made familiar to us, in their
outward appearance, by the pictorials, are recent specimens; and, as we have
already seen, Colonel Williams introduced them into our country in 1807, by
the construction of Castles Williams and Clinton, and Fort Gansevoort, New
York harbor.
An objection urged against casemates, and a grave one, since it is aimed at
one of their most important attributes, is that the embrasures of masonry are
dangerous to the gunners, from their outward flaring surfaces reflecting into the
interior the enemy’s missiles. Montalembert was well aware of this objection,
calling the embrasure, in its ordinary form, a “murderous funnel,” (entonnoir
* The topmasts of many of the vessels of Commodore Farragut’s fleet in the attack on Forts
Jackson and St. Philip contained boat-howitzers, destined to fire canister at the gunners of
the low batteries of those works.
t The celebrated Cainot, then an officer of French engineers, but who adopted the views
of Montalembert, writes to him: ‘‘ You have wrung from your adversaries the admission
that well-constructed casemates are a good thing,” &c. (Zastrow, Histoire dela Fortification: )
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 159
meurtriére,) and his sagacity aid not fail to prescribe the best remedy by rules
intended to reduce to a minimum the external opening. He directed that the
throat should be no larger than necessary to receive the muzzle of the gun and
to endure the shock of its discharge; that it should not be more than two feet
from the exterior surface of the wall; that the cheeks should be parallel to the
sides of the sector of fire; and to render practicable these arrangements he
invented the ‘affut @ arguille,” (carriage with tongue,) which has served as the
type of nearly all subsequent casemate gun-carriages. It is strange that, even
while adopting the plans of Montalembert, European engineers should have
almost wholly overlooked these maxims, and that it was reserved for our own
illustrious engineer to make their application, and, in perfecting the casemate
and the embrasure, to become a co-worker with Montalembert, by bringing the
easemated water-battery to its highest degree of perfection.
I now revert to General Votten’s labors in this connexion, and in reference
thereto I quote from his report to the Secretary of War:
«The first casemated battery was completed in 1808. It has two tiers of guns
in casemates and one in barbette. he exterior openings of the lower embrasures
are 4’ 8” by 6 feet, giving an area of 28 square feet; and of the second tier 3/
8” by 5 feet. area 184 square feet; the horizontal traverse of the guns being
limited to 44 degrees.
«Within three or four years of the time just mentioned two other casemated
batteries were built, each having a single tier of guns in casemates, with exterior
openings of 4! 5” by 5 feet, area 22 square feet; one with horizontal scope of
about 42 degrees, and the other of about 45 degrees.
“Tn 1815 the author of this report was called on to prepare a project for the
defence of. an important channel; and, having been convinced, while employed
as an assistant in the construction of two of the batteries just mentioned, that
the principles and the details by which the embrasures and the dependent case-
mates had thus far been regulated were erroneous and defective, set about a
eareful study of the conditions to be fulfilled in providing for the heavy guns of
that period mounted on a casemate carriage that had already been approved and
adopted. ‘The result was an embrasure having an exterior opening of 4 feet
wide by 2/ 6” high at the outside line of the cheeks, and 3 feet high at the key
of the covering arch, the throat being 1/ 10” wide. ‘This provided for all the
depression and elevation of the gun that the carriage permitted, and also for a
horizontal scope of full 60 degrees. Covered with a lintel instead of an arch,
the height of the exterior opening might be a little less than 3 feet.
“The plan of this embrasure shows that the interior opening is 5’ 6” wide,
and that the plane of the throat is within 2 feet of the outside of the wall, which,
just at the embrasure, is & feet thick.
« A slight modification fitted this embrasure, when applied to flanking or in-
terior defence, to receive at first a carronade of large calibre, and of later years
a howitzer instead. When these latter were liable to be assailed by musketry,
the outer cheeks were made ex cremailliere, (notched,) a long-known device.
“Tt was with timidity and hesitation that the cheeks of this embrasure were
placed so near the track of the ball, when fired from the casemate, with the
maximum obliquity, and the results of an early trial with experimental embra-
sures at Fortress Monroe gave some sanction to the doubt. ‘lhe first two under
trial were built of lime-mortar, and were soon shaken to pieces by the blast of
the gun. Another one, however, constructed of bricks laid in cement-mortar,
sustained without injury several hundred discharges. These last results have
been confirmed wherever there has been practice from our embrasures, which,
with immaterial differences, have, since 1815, been constructed in all our case-
mated batteries according to the preceding description.”
It will be seen from the foregoing quotations how thoroughly General Totten,
in adopting the casemated battery, was imbued with the spirit of its illustrious
160 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
originator. If, as is likely, he was aware of the latter’s rules on this subject,
he was the first to appreciate their essential importance, and to prove the prac-
ticability of their application. It is probable, however, that the close study of
the subject, critical observation, and keen sagacity which so distinguished him on
all occasions, and which taught him to accept nothing as the best which was
susceptible of improvement, led him to recognize as “ murderous funnels” the
embrasures of routine—to create anew the rules of Montalembert, and to make,
for the first time, a successful application of them. He reduced the throat to
nearly an absolute minimum ; he placed it at two feet from the outer face of the
wall, diminishing the external openings from eighteen, twenty-two, and twenty-
eight, down to about ten square feet, while he increased the sector of fire of the
gun from forty-five to sixty degrees; thus adding one-third to its field of fire,
and consequently to its value.
The embrasures, thus modelled in 1815, remained unchanged until the year
1858, but the casemate continued a subject of study and experiment during most
of his life. ‘The perfecting of ventilation, the determination of the dimensions
and height of the piers, of the span and rise of the arches, their thickness and
manner of covering, so as to obtain perfect drainage and to avoid the injurious
effects of frost, &c., were problems of prolonged research and skilful solution,
establishing for General Totten the right to be considered the author of the
American casemate. :
In connexion with these researches may be mentioned those also which were
directed to the determination of the manner of mounting guns “ en barbette.” *
As the dimensions of sea-coast ordnance increased, more and more elaborate
structures became necessary for their mounting and management. ‘The plan-
ning and construction of the carriages belonged to the Ordnance Bureau, but it.
was General ‘Totten’s task to adapt the platforms and parapets thereto. None
but the engineer or artillerist can thoroughly understand the difficulty and com-
plexity of the problems therein involved. ‘lo provide a platform which shall
support, without the slightest deflexion, the weight, and resist the shock of dis-
charge, while it provides for the training or pointing of the gun—which is so
adapted to the parapet as to allow the maximum horizontal seetor of fire, and to
afford the most perfect cover to the gunners consistent with allowing all the de-
pression demanded by the circumstances of the case-—such are the conditions to
be fulfilled, separately, for each calibre of gun. After years of experience, and
after our sea-coast ordnance had attained its highest development prior to the
introduction of the rifled gun and fifteen-inch columbiad, General Totten em-
bodied his results in a lithographic sheet exhibiting to the eye of the engineer
for every kind of gun and for every probable case the particular solution. This
single sheet exhibits strikingly the characteristics of the author’s mind—the
profound study which he brought to bear on every subject, the scrupulous aecu-
racy of his determinations, which neglected no appreciable magnitude, and the
thoroughness and generality of his solutions. —
When the embrasure of 1815 was designed, ships’ armaments contained no
gun heavier than a twenty-four or thirty-two pounder. As the calibres increased
it became a matter of doubt whether the five feet thickness of wall immediately
about the embrasure was sufficient. At the same time the progress made in the
art of forging large masses of iron had suggested that by its use the funnel form
of the mouth might be entirely done away with, and the exterior opening re-
duced to an absolute minimum. Nothing but experiment could lead to sound
conclusions, and the experiments referred to on a former page were instituted,
the principal objects of which were (in General 'Totten’s own language)—
I. “« To ascertain the effects of firing with solid balls, with shells, and with
grape and canister, from heavy ordnance at short distances, upon various mate-
rials used in the construction of casemate embrasures.
* A barbette gun is one which is fired over a parapet.
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 161
II. “'To determine whether these embrasures might have a form that would
shut out most of these missiles, and resist for a time the heaviest, without lessen-
ing the sector of fire, horizontal and vertical, of the casemate gun.
III. “To determine the degree to which, without injury from the blast of the
gun, or lessening its scope of fire, the throat of the embrasure, and also the ex-
terior opening, might be lessened.
IV. «To determine whether all smaller missiles might not be prevented from
passing through the throat into the battery ; and whether the smoke of the blast
might not also be excluded by simple and easily managed shutters.”
Targets were constructed representing the wall of a fortification pierced with
its embrasures. All varieties of materials were employed in the walls, and every
suggested method of consti ucting the embrasure was tried. General Totten’s
report shows that the minutest detail of construction was directed by himself,
and that he personally superintended the experiments. They were éarried on
at intervals during four successive years, the results of each year suggesting the
object of experiment for the next.
It would be out of place here to follow the report through its detailed ac-
counts of the firings, or even to attempt to sum up the conclusions arrived at,
referring as they do to such a variety of subjects ; but those concerning the
thickness of the scarp-wall and the use of wrought iron may be properly quoted
as among the most important :
« The general conclusion from these trials is, that, whether of cement concrete, of
bricks, or of hard stones, the portion of the wall at and around each embrasure
having the thickness of five feet only should be no larger than is indispensable
for the adaptation of the gun and carriage to the embrasure; if restricted to a
small area, this thickness will suffice—not otherwise.
“The thickness of five feet will resist a number of these balls, impinging in
succession on that space, provided the bond expand promptly above, below, and
on each side, into a thickness greater by some two and a half feet or three feet
or more. Were the wall no thicker generally than five feet, being reinforced
only by piers some fifteen feet apart, it would soon be seriously damaged by
battering at short distances.”
And in reference to iron it is stated: “ First, it may be fairly assumed that
a plate eight inches thick of wrought iron of good quality, kept in place by a
backing of three feet of strong masonry, will stop a solid ball from an eight-
inch columbiad fired with ten and a quarter pounds of powder from the distance
of two hundred yards. The plate of iron will be deeply indented at the point
of impact, the ball carving for itself a smoot bed of the shape and size of one
hemisphere, in which it will be found broken into many pieces easily separable,
and it will, besides, be somewhat bent generally. The masonry behind will
be much jarred, and, unless strongly bonded, be considerably displaced ;. more-
over, unless the thickness of three feet is well tied into thicker masses imme-
diately adjacent on the sides and above and below, the general damage will be
severe.
“Second, this plate will be much the stronger for being in a single mass, and
not made up of several thinner plates. ‘The continuity effected by bolts and
rivets of the made-up plates is broken even by weak assaults, so that. after-
wards the stronger, instead of a joint opposition, finds only a succession of
feeble resistances.
“'Third, a thickness of two inches is ample for shutters designated to stop
the largest grape-shot. With this thickness they will be neither perforated nor
deformed by anything less than cannon balls or shells. These shutters also,
for the reason just given, should be made of a single thickness. The firings
show the necessity of concealing entirely, even from the smallest iron missile,
their hinges and fastenings.
ll s
162 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
«Fourth, a wrought iron plate of half an inch in thickness is adequate to pro-
tect the outer margins and the offsets of embrasures from injury by grape or
canister shot.”
These facts established, the effect of the form and dimensions of the embra-
sures in carrying in the smaller missiles was investigated ; the recorded results
will enable us to appreciate the force of Montalembert’s expression, “ murderous
funnels,” as even its author could not do.
«Suppose a hundred-gun ship to be placed within good canister range of a
easemated battery of about the ship’s length and height, to the fifty guns of the
ship’s broadside there would be opposed about twenty-four guns in two tiers
in the battery. The ship would fire each gun once in three minutes, or ten
times in half an hour; the fifty guns would therefore make five hundred dis-
charges within that time.
« With* one hundred and fifty-six balls in each thirty-two-pound canister,
(weighing in all thirty-one and a half pounds,) there would be thrown seventy-
eight thousand balls in thirty minutes. Supposing one-half to miss the fort,
which, considering the size of the object and the short distance, is a large al-
lowance, there would still remain the number of thirty-nine thousand balls to
strike a surface of (say) six thousand square feet—that is,
ie eaGhacuiare O0ts- 2.25 - ake ae a - aen ee en eee 64 balls.
“Or within the exterior opening of one of the embrasures of our
second target, of which the area is 8.9 square feet, there would
RAE Rs ie) cee os ek eee Ae ee eee Se eee 58 balls.
“Within the European embrasure above mentioned, having fifty-
four square feet of opening,* there would be received in half an
ONES BAe eer cS. Rees el eee Sate Ae 351 balls.”
And if the ship carried modern eight-inch guns, and fired canister of musket
balls, these figures would be, in the three cases, fifty-one, four hundred and fifty-
three, and two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four. These theoretical con-
clusions were verified by the experimental firing with grape and canister, and
it is thus seen how greatly superior General Totten’s embrasure of 1815, which
is but little larger than that of the second target, is to the European one, and
how thoroughly he had, at that early day, mastered the subject. He had, in-
deed, perfected the embrasure so far as it could be done with masonry alone.
But the quantity of small missiles which even that embrasure would receive
is dangerously great, and would be much diminished if the funnel-form of the
mouth could be done away wiih, and the throat reduced to an absolute minimum.
This could be accomplished only by the use of iron, and the conclusions I have
just quoted furnish the data necessary to its successful application.
The throat (still placed two feet back from the outer face of the wall) being
formed of iron plates, it became practicable to cut away the flaring surfaces of
masonry, 80 as to present others parallel or perpendicular to the face of the wall,
and by this change of form to exclude all missiles not directed within the limits
of the throat itself Still more completely to accomplish the object, wrought-
iron shutters of two inches thickness (as determined by the experiments) were
applied, by which, except at the moments of aiming and firing, the embrasure
was entirely closed.
Such is the history of the casemated battery and casemated embrasure in the
United States. We have seen that the perfection to which they have been
brought is due to General Totten, and to General Totten alone. Nor is it to the
experiments which I have been describing, laborious, skiliul, and thorough as
they were, that we may solely attribute such results. We must look back to
; * Reference is made to the embrasure ef a European work built within the last twenty-
ve years.
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 163
the time when, a first lieutenant of engineers, he saw and aided in the con-
struction of our first casemated fort, and when he, fully appreciating its merits
and recognizing the defects which a disregard and want of appreciation of the
illustrious projector’s own principles had entailed upon it, set himself to the task
of enhancing the one and correcting the other.
The ten years which have eiapsed since 1855 have witnessed changes in the
character of sea-coast and nayal artillery, and an increase in the ealibres and
weight of their projectiles, which no one at that date would have anticipated ;
hence some doubt may be entertained whether our casemated masonry works
are adequate to contend with iron-clad vessels armed with the modern artillery.
This is a question which it remains for experiment or experience to decide. It
has, as yet, not been demonstrated that a masonry fort, constructed as our more
recent works are, will not, armed with the powerful guns now being introduced,
endure the contest quite as long as its iron-clad antagonist can protract it.
In this connexion it is due to General Totten to say that he has himself been
ever the most strenuous advocate of “big guns,” the most urgent instigator of
their production. The writer well remembers when, seated with him on the
piazza of the officers’ quarters at Fort Jackson, our eyes resting on the mighty
stream flowing past us, upon the defence of which our thoughts and conversa-
tion had been turning, he exclaimed, “ We must have a 20-inch gun.” The
idea was novel to me at that time, and I exhibited some surprise. He went on
to say that, thoroughly to prevent the passage or attempted passage of an armed
steamship, there must be not only danger but almost a certainty of destruction.
“Let us have guns such that (to use his own phrase) ‘every shot shall be a
bird.’”” The invention of armored ships, not then foreseen, has increased the
necessity of having such guns as he, on other grounds, so strongly advocated.
He expressed the greatest confidence that a gun of the dimensions he named
would yet be made and introduced into our batteries, and added the interesting
statement that in his earlier days he had found much difficulty in impressing
upon the members of boards on which he had served the necessity of having
guns in our harbor defences larger than 24-pounders. To the labors and
genius of a Rodman we owe the actual invention of the art. of constructing
fifteen and twenty-inch guns; but without the unceasing stimulus of General
Totten’s known and urged views, it is doubtful whether Rodman’s labors would
have been called for or sustained.
The preceding pages have been mainly devoted to the illustration of our de-
. parted associate’s career as an officer and as the Chief Engineer of the United
States. Before turning our attention to other spheres of his usefulness, it seems
fitting to quote from one of his eulogists the following summary of his official
characteristics :
“In wielding the influence of his office as Chief Engineer, the prominent traits
exhibited by General ‘Totten were strict justice and scrupulous integrity. No
sophistry, no blandishments, no arbitrary exercise of superior authority could turn
him in the least from his steadfast adherence to his own sense of duty. Avoiding
all useless collisions with his official superiors, showing due respect to their
station, he never failed to call their attention to any errors committed by them
with respect to the department under his charge; nor did he ever leave them
any excuse for wilful wrong-doing by remaining silent, even when he knew
that his suggestions would not only be ill-received and of no use, but might be
visited by the exercise of those petty vexations which official superiors can em-
ploy against those under them who thwart their misdoings.
* * * * * * % * *
«The individual traits of General Totten were strongly marked. Powerfully
built, of a constitution of the most vigorous stamp, cool, potent, and persevering,
of sound judgment and variety of intellectual capacity, nature seemed to have
164 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
endowed him for the profession that he had chosen. His attention to the per-
formance of his professional duties amounted to a devotion.
* * * * * * * ® *
“Whilst steadily adhering to what had been well settled by experience, and
withstanding the ill-directed efforts of that class of men of whom some are to
be found in all bodies, who seize upon every novelty and press it into the service
of their own crude notions, he was far from rejecting well-reasoned projects of
improvement, and encouraged, as his own immediate works show, every step
towards real progress. Although not belonging to the class of mere inventors,
he had that invaluable faculty to one holding a position of so great public re-
sponsibility, of detecting the fallacies with which this class too frequently de-
ceive themselves as well as others.”
In 1863, under the law uniting into one the two corps of engineers and topo-
graphical engineers, General ‘Totten was advanced to the full grade of brigadier
general. A few days before his death the Senate unanimously confirmed his
nomination by the President to be ‘major general by brevet, for long, faithful,
and eminent services.”” Never were such distinction and such commendation
more fitly bestowed.
Giving the precedence in order to duties most intimately connected with his
profession, I now turn to General Totten’s important labors in establishing and
maintaining our present light-house system.
The attention of Congress having been called to the pressing necessity for
introducing certain reforms, administrative and executive, into the light-house
system of the United States, that body, after full discussion of the subject,
passed an act (approved March 3, 185J) stipulating that from and after that
date, in all new light-houses and all light-houses requiring illuminating appa-
ratus, the lens or 'resnel system should be adopted.
Another chapter of the same act provided for the appointment of a commis-
sion, to be composed of two officers of engineers of the army, and such civil
officers of high scientific attainments as might be under the orders or at the dis-
position of the Treasury Department, and a junior officer of the navy as secre-
tary, whose duty it should be to inquire into the condition of the light-house
establishment of the United States, and to make a general detailed report and
programme to guide legislation in extending and improving our present system
of construction, illumination, inspection, and superintendence.
The board, as constituted by the President, consisted ef Commander W. B.
Shubrick, General J. G. Totten, Colonel James Kearney, Captain 8S. F. Du- |
pont, United States navy, Professor A. Dallas Bache, superintendent United
States coast survey, and Thornton A. Jenkins, United States navy, as secretary.
Its labors were directed first to demonstrating the evils, irregularities, and
abuses which had crept into the light-house service under the management of
the Fifth Auditor of the treasury, (the late venerable and highly respected
Stephen Pleasonton,) among which were found to be those arising from de-
fective principles of construction, renovation, and repair of light-houses, inade-
quate protection to sites and badly planned and poorly constructed sea-walls.
Jt may readily be understood how the peculiarly practical mind of General Tot-
ten, brought to bear upon these and kindred subjects of inquiry, developed and
demonstrated the necessity of at once employing proper scientific systems and
plans of construction. His assistance in collecting data was found invaluable,
and his lucid, clear mind was equally to be trusted in detecting faults and in de-
vising the remedy.
Without entering into a detailed account of the labors of this board of inquiry,
it is sufficient to state that the mass of evidence. collected by it was so irresisti-
ble in proof of existing errors, that Congress, under date of August 31, 1852,
passed an act which created a permanent light-house board, to which was con-
fided all the duties of the establishment. General Totten was appointed to this
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 165
board, and served as a valued and honored member, with but a short interruption,
until his decease. Its early labors were arduous and onerous. A new system
was to be founded where before had been none; order should come from chaos,
error was to vanish before science, economy to succeed to wastefulness, darkness
to give place to light. ‘The task, great as it was, fell upon no shrinking hearts
or feeble brains. “The work was accomplished; and long before his lamented
death General Totten had the satisfaction of witnessing the labors of himself
and his associates crowned with full success. The board in its deliberations de-
rived great benefit from his preseuce and participation, and relied with entire as-
surance upon the correctness of his judgment upon all subjects concerning which
he would express an opinion. He served almost continuously as chairman of
the committee of finance, and the decisions of that committee owe not a little of
their sound wisdom to the searching scrutiny joined to the generous and liberal
views of its chairman. He was also a member of the committee on engineering,
in which department his peculiar merit was most conspicuous. 'The principal
works with which his name is associated, and which claim our attention, are the
light-houses on Seven-Foot Knoll, near Baltimore, Maryland, and on Minot’s
Ledge, off Cohasset, Massachusetts.
The former is an iron pile structure standing in some ten feet of water. It
was erected at a time when the science of iron pile construction was in its in-
fancy, and was one of the first works of the kind undertaken by the board.
Hence it was a matter of deep interest and solicitude. It was successfully com-
pleted, and the light-house stands to-day a signal reward for the thought and
labor bestowed upon its conception and construction.
The light-house at Minot’s Ledge was a work of far greater difficulty, and to
its proper location and plan General Totten lent the resources of his great expe-
rience and exhaustless knowledge. As his intimate acquaintance with the
whole coast of the United States, acquired while acting as a member of the
board of engineers, and during his annual inspections as Chief Engineer, ena-
bled him, with the aid of the Coast Survey, to indicate with almost unerring
certainty the proper location and character of all new light-houses, so his prae-
tical knowledge of construction, in laying the foundation of our-sea-coast fortifi-
cations and the sea-walls by which the sites of many of them had to be protect-
ed, prepared him to grapple with the difficulties of constructing a masoury
tower in this exposed situation, and to bring to their solution all the known and
tried resources of engineering. ;
Minot’s Ledge is situated about twenty miles southeast of Boston. It is the
outer rock of a very dangerous group called the “Cohasset Rocks,” lying at
the very wayside of navigation to the harbor of Boston. A light-house of iron
had been erected here a few years previous to the organization of the Light-
house Board, but it was carried away in a fearful storm which swept along the
coast of New England on the 16th of April, 1851.
Not only the commercial interests of the country, but humanity demanded
that it should be replaced, and Congress promptly made an appropriation for
this purpose, stipulating that the tower should be erected on the outer Minot,
and confiding its construction to the Topographical Bureau. This bureau, hay-
ing publicly advertised, received sixteen distinct proposals to erect the proposed
structure, but @nally recommended, in view of the difficulties to be overcome,
and the fearful fate of its predecessor, that it should be located on one of the
inner rocks. In accordance with this recommendation, an act of Congress was
passed authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to “ select, instead of the outer
Minot’s Ledge, any more suitable site.”” Before further action had been taken,
the whole subject fell into the hands of the newly created Light-house Board.
A joint resolution of Congress was then passed (1854) giving to this board the
decision as to the location and the mode of construction.
166 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
The question of location being thus widely reopened, a committee of the
board was sent to make a personal examination of the locality. General Tot-
ten was, of course, a member of this committee, and was not long in making up
his mind that the outer and not the inner Minot was the proper site. His argu-
ments on this subject proved conclusive with the board. He urged that if the
light were placed on any of the inner rocks the desired object would be but
partially accomplished, since in a dense fog or thick snow-storm vessels might
approach within a few hundred feet without being able to see it, and thus be
lost upon the outer ledge.
When the question of practicability was broached, his professional pride
seemed to be roused. He argued that, after what had been done on the coast of
England in the erection of the Eddystone light-house a century ago, and more
recently of the Bell Rock and Skerryvore lights, it would be a humiliating
admission that the requisite science and skill were not to be found in this
country to erect a similar structure where, as all admitted, one was so much
needed.
He earefully studied the accounts of the construction of the Eddystone, Bell
Rock, and Skerryvore light-houses, by Smeaton, Robert Stephenson, and Allan
Stephenson, but the fact that the Eddystone was begun at high-water mark,
that the ledge of the Bell Rock was extensive, and elevated several feet above
low-water, and that the Skerryvore presented still less difficulties, while the sur-
veys show that the outer Minot’s ledge was very contracted, and that the pro-
posed structure must commence even below low water, did not deter him from
advocating and designing a work for this formidable position more difficult to
accomplish than anything which had ever preceded it.
The plans which he prepared were drawn with his usual minuteness of detail.
The problem was one peculiarly fascinating to engineers—the uniting into a
single mass the several component stones of the structure so that no one can be
detached from the rest, that each shall be a bond of connexion to those adjacent,
that the whole shall be an integral, having a strength ample to defy the most
powerful foe to human structure, the fury of the ocean’s winds and waves. —
Though not himself the constructor of the work, yet to have insisted against
authoritative adverse opinion on its practicability, to have planned the building
and selected the engineer who should rear it, and to have overlooked the work
from its commencement to its completion, entitles him, even were this his only
work, to recognition among the Smeatons and Stephensons and Brunels, as one
of the great engineers of the age.
For the execution, he selected Captain (now Brevet Brigadier General) Bar-
ton 5. Alexander, of the Corps of Engineers, an officer whose experience, ener-
gy. boldness, and self-reliance eminently fitted him for the task. It is for him
to recount the history of the work, to give to the world the interesting narrative
of dithculties met and overcome, of patience requited and energy triumphant.
General Totten watched its progress with unflagging interest, making frequent
visits to the superintending engineer, aiding him with his counsels and encour-
aging him in his difficulties. He lived to enjoy the proud satisfaction of inspect-
ing the finished structure; and when at last from its towering summit flashed
o’er the troubled waters the beacon-light of safety to the tempest-tossed mari-
ner, he might well exclaim, with the Latin poet, though in a n@bler sense and
in a less boastful spirit, “ Exegi monumentum cere perenius.”
General (then Colonel) Totten was named in the act of Congress organizing
the Smithsonian Institution in 1846 as one of the Regents to whom the busi-
ness transactions of that celebrated establishment are intrusted. “At an early
meeting of the Board of: Regents he was appointed one of the Executive Com-
mittee, and was continued in these offices by repeated election to the time of
his death, a period of nearly eighteen years. He evinced a lively interest in
the organization of the Institution, and after a careful study of the will and char-
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 167
acter of Smithson, gave his preference to the programme prepared by Professor
Henry, which was finally adopted. His advocacy of the plan was the more
important since he was well acquainted with the scientific character of James
Smithson, and had himself, as we shall see in a subsequent statement, been
engaged in a line of research similar to one of those pursued by the founder of
this Institution.
In the reconstruction of the interior of the main part of the Smithsonian build-
ing which had partly been completed in wood, but which had given way, he
strongly urged the employment of fire-proof material, to the adoption of which
the preservation of the valuable collections of the Institution is indebted. In
the discharge of his duty as one of the Executive Committee, he acted with the
same conscientious regard to the sacredness of the trust which characterized all
his official labors, and critically examined all the accounts, assured himself as
to the proper expenditure of the funds, and advised as to the general policy to
be pursued. In him the Secretary ever found a firm supporter, a sympathetic
friend, and a judicious adviser. Unostentatious, unselfish, and only desiring to
advance whatever cause he might be connected with, he gave the most valuable
suggestions as if they were of little moment, and in such a way that they might
appear to be deductions from what others had said or done, being more anxious
that his suggestions should be properly carried out than that they should be
accredited to himself.
As a recreation from the more arduous studies of his profession, he devoted
in the early part of his life his spare hours to natural history, paying much
attention to the mollusca of the northern coast of the United States; and he
was perhaps the first, or at least one of the first, to introduce into this country
the use of the dredge for the search of these animals, thus not only obtaining
many species which would otherwise have escaped attention and getting fresh
and unmutilated specimens of species previously known only from dead imper-
fect shells, but enabling us to learn something of the habits and associations of
the animals—information of much greater scientific value than the discovery of
a few new species. His observations and studies in conchology were embodied
in an article entitled “Descriptions of some Shells belonging to the Coast of
New England,” published in the American Journal of Science and Arts for
1834 and 1835, and Dr. A. A. Gould was largely indebted to him for material
employed in his “Invertebrata of Massachusetts,” many of the species of shells
contained in which were first found to inhabit our coast by General Totten ;
others were new species discovered by him, though described by Dr. Gould,
while some nine or ten specimens were not only discovered but described by
him. The descriptions of species and remarks evince his powers of observation
and critical acumen, and almost all of the forms described have stood the test
of subsequent examination, and the validity of their specific distinction been
confirmed, although several of them are among the most common shells of the
coast; on account of their small size, they had been previously overlooked or
neglected, but their insignificance in size did not diminish their interest in the
eyes of one who viewed nature in all her manifestations as worthy of contem-
plation. One of the most beautiful and almost the smallest of the bivalves of
our coast, called by him Venus gemma, has since been dedicated to him under
the name of Gemma Tottenii by Dr. William Stimpson.
General Totten collected principally on the shores of New England, and his
explorations with the dredge were almost entirely made in the vicinity of New-
port, R. I., and of Provincetown, Mass. A list of the shells of Massachusetts
was contributed by him to one of the preliminary reports on the natural history
of that State. The principal species described by him are as follows: Modiola
glandula, (now known as Mytilus decussatus,) Venus gemma, (Gemma Tottenii,)
Solemya borealis, Bulla oryza, Natica immaculata, Turbo minutus, (Rissoa
minuta,) Turritella interrupta, (Chemnitzia interrupta,) Acteon trifidus, (Chem-
168 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
nitzia trifida,) and Pasithea nigra. This last-named species he described from
young shells, and afterwards finding the adult shell, which is very different,
called it Cerithium reticulatum. It has for many years been called Cerythium
Say, but a late author has again credited it to him, under the name of Bittium
nigrum.
A species of Succinea (S. Totteniana) was dedicated to General Totten by
Mr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia.
Conchologists are also indebted to General Totten for the discovery of means
for the preservation of the epidermis or periostraca of shells, which is in many
species so liable to crack, and this recipe has been received with much appro-
bation by many collectors who have found it to supply a want much felt. The
valuable collection of rare shells which he made at this period of his life he
presented to the Smithsonian Institution, without the usual condition that it
should be preserved separately, but to be used most advantageously ‘for the
advancement of science, to complete the general collection of the museum, or for
distribution as duplicates to other establishments.
In the ‘Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York” for 1824
(vol. i, pp. 109-114) he published “ Notes on some new Supports for Minerals,
subject to the Action of the Common Blow-pipe.” These researches on the use
and power of the blow-pipe appear to have been incited by an article of James
Smithson, the subsequent founder of the Smithsonian Institution, and the
memoir of ‘Totten commences with a reference to and rehearsal of the experi-
ments of that gentleman, as detailed in a letter to the editor of the Annals of
Philosophy. Smithson, it was remarked, had communicated several ingenious
modifications of Saussure’s process with supports of splinters of sapphire, which
process, he observes, “has been scarcely at all employed; owing partly to the
excessive difficulty, in general, of making the particles adhere, and in conse-
quence of the almost unpossessed degree of patience required, and of the time
consumed by nearly interminable failures.’ Detailing the processes of Mr.
Smithson, three in number, and the snecess of that gentleman, he adopted a
- modification of Smithson’s third process, having recourse, as a support, to a
portion of the mineral itself, which he designed to expose to the action of the
flame. ‘Instead, however, of taking upon the point of platinum wire a very
minute portion of the paste made of the powdered mineral,’ according to Mr.
Smithson’s method, he “formed a paste by mixing the powder with very thick
gum-water, and, rubbing a little of it under the finger, formed a very acute cone,
sometimes nearly an inch in length, and generally about a twentieth of an
inch in diameter at the base.’ ‘lo the apex of such cones the most minute
particles would adhere under the strongest blast of the blow-pipe, and being
insulated by the destruction of continuity of the particles of the cone, the flame
could be directed upon it with undiminished fervor. Experiments were made
on a number of minerals, confirming those of Mr. Smithson, and greatly extend-
ing the power of the blow-pipe, and he was thus led to add to the three classes
divided in relation to this instrument a fourth, namely, “such as are fusible, per
se, in microscopical particles.”
The attention of the inhabitants near the shores of the great lakes of the
north had often been arrested by the sudden disappearance in the spring of the
ice on the surface. The lakes would be covered with a continuous sheet of
solid ice in the evening, and in the next morning all would have vanished.
Wild speculations had been entertained as to the explanation of this phenomenon
previous to the investigation of the subject by General Totten, who presented
an article on the subject to the American Association for the Advancement of
Science at the Springfield meeting in 1859.
From this it appears that his attention had been directed to it forty years be-
fore, at Plattsburg, New York. Ice is composed of a congeries of prismatic erys-
tals, whose axes are at right angles to the surface of the mass. “ Examina-
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 169
tions then and afterwards made of floating fresh-water ice have shown that the
natural effect of the advancing year is gradually to transform ice, solid and
apparently homogeneous, into an aggregation of these irregular prismatic crys-
tals, standing in vertical juxtaposition, having few surfaces of contact, but
touching rather at points and on edges, and kept in place at last merely by
want of room to fall asunder. Until this change has somewhat advanced, the
cohesive strength of ice of considerable thickness is still adequate to sustain the
weight and shock of the travel it had borne during the winter; but becoming
less and less coherent by the growing isolation of the prisms, or more and more
‘rotten,’ as the phrase is, though retaining all its thickness, the ice will at last
scarcely support a small weight, though bearing upon a large surface, the foot
of man easily breaking through, and very slight resistance being made to the
point ofa cone.” ‘The points of contact of the particles being destroyed, each
will drop into the position in the water below required by the place of its own
centre of gravity—that is to say, it will be upon its side, exposing large sur-
faces to the action of the warm water. With the ice in such condition, a heavy
wind will cause the disruption of the particles, and the speedy disappearance
would be the consequence. This remark of General Totten as to the crystalli-
zation of ice has since been extended to nearly all substances which, in becom-
ing solid, assume the crystallized form. The axes of the crystals tend to assume
a position at right angles to the surface of cooling.
As illustrative of the mind of General Totten, it may be stated that he seldom
failed to give valuable hints for the improvement of processes or inventions
which were brought before him in the course of the discharge of his numerous
official duties. Among these was an instrument for ascertaining the daily
amount of evaporation from a given surface by means of the descent of water
contained in an inverted graduated tube, the open end of which, was immersed
in the basin from which the evaporation took place. With a slight correction
for variation in barometrical pressure, this instrument gives, with more precision
than any other with which we are acquainted, the amount of evaporation.
I have, gentlemen, thus faintly and inadequately sketched the life and ser-
vices of our departed friend and associate; but, faint and inadequate as my
sketch may be, I feel confident that every one will recognize in it the lineaments
of a great and true man. Labors so protracted, results so important and varied,
it is the destiny of but few to achieve, and for him who achieves them may
justly be claimed a high niche in the temple of fame, and the grateful homage
of the patriot and of the seeker after truth. One of the oldest of the corpora-
tors of this academy, it was permitted him only to contribute his past labors
and his shining example. But these are indeed a rich legacy. Proud, indeed,
may this youthful institution be that it can enrol among its members the name
of Joseph Gilbert Totten; proud, too, may each one whom I now address—
each one of its members—be, if he shall achieve but a far less claim to recog-
nition among men of science. ‘To the aged among us—to those who were young
with him, and like him have crowned a life of toil by honorable achievements—
I need not speak. They require no example, and they may feel in contemplat-
ing his history an additional assurance that their own works, too, “ shall praise
them.” To the more youthful or to the middle-aged, who have just commenced,
or but partially accomplished, the steep ascent which leads to honorable fame,
his life is precious in its teachings.
He was a patriot in the broadest and best sense of the term. To his country
he had given himself, and every faculty of his being was devoted to her honor and
welfare—realizing almost literally the thought of Rousseau, “the child on en-
tering life ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death see but her.”
Like all who have left lasting results for the benefit of their country or of
mankind, he was a hard worker. But ill-regulated labor, however arduous,
170 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL: JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
could never have accomplished what he accomplished. Beyond all men I ever
knew, he was systematic ; and few indeed are the examples of a life, in al
things, so perfectly regulated. ‘The beautiful order which pervaded all that he
did is searcely less worthy of study and admiration than the achievements to
which it so materially contributed.
He was no trifler with the realities of life, who dallied with them for his pleas-
ure or who wielded them as instruments of ambition or self-interest. To him,
as to all true men, the meaning of life was concentrated in one single word,
Duty. This “chief end of man,” which is to glorify God by obedience to his
laws in the-use of the faculties he has bestowed, was his ruling principle—the
celestial cynosure to which his eyes were ever directed, and from which no al-
urement of lower motives could divert it. Nor was his sense of duty of that
frigid, repulsive nature which reduces the conduct of life to a formula, and, sub-
stituting rules for emotions, seems but a refined selfishness. He was warm and
sympathetic, finding his chief happiness in the pleasures of domestic and social
intercourse, but singularly susceptible to everything that ministers to innocent
enjoyment. ;
Perhaps no more striking illustration than his history affords could be found
of the truth that the path of duty is the path of happiness. His life was em-
inently a happy one, and his, indeed, was that “ peace of mind which passeth
understanding.” ‘Though devoted from his youth to the military service of his
country, and doomed to the vicissitudes of a soldier’s lot, he was permitted, to
a greater degree than most men, to enjoy the blessings of the domestic circle.
There, indeed, he sat enthroned, the idol of a family of whose supreme affection
and immeasurable devotion he was the object. Nor dare we call those blows by
which a Heavenly Father reminds us that this world is not our “ abiding place,”
and teaches us to look beyond to “an house not made with hands, eternal-in the
heavens,”’ sources of unhappiness to him who receives them as from the hand of
One ‘“ who chasteneth whom he loveth.” One by one, he lived to see all his
three sous, two of his four daughters, and finally the companion of the joys an
sorrows of so many years, precede him to the grave.
Beautiful beyond all else that earth presents is that conjugal companionship,
so touchingly depicted by Burns, which, beginning in youth, is permitted to con-
tinue unbroken till the Psalmist’s period of life is overpassed. During the later
years of their lives, Mrs. Totten, no longer bound to the domestic hearth by
the cares of a growing family, became truly an inseparable companion. Never,
when it was at all practicable to have her with him, did he ride or walk, or
make a journey, or perform one of his periodical tours of inspection, without
her companionship; nor could one see them together without feeling that they
presented a model of whatever is amiable and lovely in the conjugal state. If
he was to her the embodiment of all that is most worthy of respect and love in
man, not less marked was his deference to her. In her own sphere—as woman,
wife, mother—she was supreme, and her judgment his law. When, but two
years before his own death, she was somewhat suddenly called away, it seemed
as if he regarded it as a message from on high, “set thy house in order, for
thou shalt die and not live.’”, No murmur escaped his lips, and no long-contin-
ued sadness clouded his brow, but there was an unwonted gentleness and quiet-
ude in his demeanor, a softening, as it were, of his nature, which revealed how
deeply “ the iron had entered his soul.” His health and bodily strength seemed
to continue little impaired, and his devotion to the duties of his office undiminished.
But once, during a life protracted beyond the usual span, had that powerful frame
submitted to the sway of sickness, and he seemed to have unusual promise of
a still further protracted life. But such promises proved deceitful. Early in
March, 1864, he was attacked with pneumonia. His illness was not at first
deemed alarming, and, indeed, at one time he was supposed to be convalescent,
but a relapse ensued, and on the 22d of April he expired, having borne the suf-
EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 171
ferings of his sickness with cheerfulness and resignation, and retained to the
last the perfect use of all his mental faculties. He had long been a member
and communicant of the Episcopal church, and died in the Christian’s hope of
a joyful resurrection.
Gentle, kind, and good, mild, modest, and tolerant, wise, sagacious, shrewd,
and learned, yet simple and unpretending as a child, he died as he had lived,
surrounded by hearts gushing with affection, and the object of the respect and
love of all with whom he had ever been associated.
The greatest of sculptors, the greatest of painters, a man unsurpassed in
boldness and originality of thought, and whose name is among those of the few
whose genius overpasses the limits of country and claims homage from all man-
kind—Michael Angelo—in a work stamped with the maturity of his powers,
carved a figure known to the world as “ I] Pensiero,” or Thought. There ex-
ists in art no other personification of meditation, no other type of self-collected-
ness and profound thought.
The sculptor arrayed it not as a philosopher, as a monk, as a poet, as an
artist, as a theologian, as a scholar, nor even as a pope. And yet these differ-
ent types of thinkers were not wanting in the past or present of the age and
country of a Raphael, of a Correggio, of a Leonardo da Vinci, of a Dante, of a
Savonarola, of a Marco Polo, of a Columbus, of a Machiavelli, of a Galileo, of a
St. Francis de Assis, of a St. Thomas Aquinas, of a Julius II, of a Leo X,
and of a Clement VII.
How, then, has Michael Angelo arrayed his personified ‘‘ Thought ?’’ In the
garb of a Soldier, upon the breast the cuirass, upon the brow, wrapt in medita-
tion, the iron easque of the man of war. ‘The great sculptor has divined the
mysterious cause why, among all people, among all classes, and in all epochs,
the soldier is honored. Instinct teaches the people, and genius taught Michael
Angelo, that among so many glorious pases fe among so many immortal vic-
tims, so many illustrious martyrs or devotees of thought, illustrating an age or
a country, the soldier stands forth pre-eminently, in all ages and in all countries,
the victim always ready, the defender always armed, the servant, the apostle,
and the martyr.
It is the Christian version of the ancient allegory which made Minerva issue
from the brain of Jupiter: Minerva, or wisdom armed, the helmet upon her
brow, the sword in her hand.
Will the foregoing paragraphs, which I have translated somewhat freely from
the “ Soldat” of Joachim Ambert, a work devoted to the illustration of the sol-
dier’s career, be deemed an immodest or extravagant glorification of the profes-
sion of arms? Far be it from me to exalt unduly that profession, but I would
at least make a claim for it, the more necessary since popular apprehension tends
to lose sight of the thinker in the man of force and of blood, that, more than any
other, it embraces all sciences and all branches of human knowledge, and leads
its followers into vast and diverse fields of thought. Let the illustrious dead be
our witnesses ; that idea which a genius of a Michael Angelo inspired and em-
bodied in marble; that idea which the lives of a Cesar, a Frederick, a Washing-
ton, a Napoleon, and a Wellington have justified; the union of Force and
Thought finds yet another and a varied illustration in the accomplished soldier
and profound thinker whose life and works we now commemorate.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD.
Resolved, That the members of the Light-house Board feel most deeply the
loss sustained by the branch of the public service under their charge in the
death of Brevet Major General Joseph Gilbert Totten, who has been one of the
most useful and active members of the board from its first appointment in pur-
172 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN.
suance of law in 1851, under the Secretary of the Treasury, as a temporary
board of inquiry into the light-house establishment ofthe United States, through
all the years of organization of the establishment and of its executive duties.
Resolved, That the high scientific attainments, the admirable administrative
qualities, the perfect knowledge of general principles, and attention to every
minute detail of the system, impressed the mental and moral qualities of Gen-
eral Totten upon his associates in a way to make his mind eminently a leading
one of the board, while his suavity, patience, perfect amiability, and retiring
modesty rendered him one of the most charming of associates in executing work
to which he was so much more than sufficient.
Resolved, That in the discharge of the duties of inquiry of the first board,
the resulting organization, the adoption of the present system of lighting by
lenses, the subject of construction, theoretical and practical, and the use of
materials, the experience and experimental knowledge of General Totten were
of the highest value to the board, and his careful application of the sciences
were of the greatest importance to the light-house system; and that in the large
qualities of common sense in all the transactions of the board, general as well
as technical, and in his high sense of justice directing great mental power, the
board constantly felt the support of General Totten as one to be relied upon for
guidance in all difficult questions of administration.
Resolved, That the affectionate qualities of General Totten’s heart so endeared
him to his colleagues, that in now expressing themselves in regard to his death,
they are fully prepared to share to the utmost the deep grief of his family, to
whom they offer their sincere condolence for the loss of one not to be replaced,
but to be ever mourned as the true, devoted, and sincere friend.
Kesolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of
General Totten, and to the honorable Secretary of War, and to the honorable
Secretary of the Treasury.
Resolved, That these proceedings be published in the Washington newspapers.
te hee le eee aN ah
TO THE
REPORT. FO Ras 5.
The object of this appendix is to illustrate the operations of the institution
by reports of lectures and extracts from correspondence, as well as to furnish
information of a character suited especially to the meteorological observers and
other persons interested in the promotion of knowledge.
MEMOIR
OF
DUCRKROTAY DE BLAINVILLE,
BY M. FLOURENS,
PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
[TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY C. A. ALEXANDER. |
«There is no pursuit in the world so toilsome,” says La Bruyere, “as that of
making for one’s self a name.”’ Undeterred by this reflection, and stimulated
by the charm of satire, La Bruyere braved the annoyances of which he spoke,
and made for himself a very considerable one. The member of the academy
whose memory I am about to recall had teo much energy to be daunted by such
a saying as the above, and seems in no small degree to have been stimulated in
his arduous labors by the spirit of contradiction. Having by persevering efforts
thrown light on some of the highest points of the science of organized beings,
he also enjoyed the success which seldom fails to attend criticism and attracted
the fervid interest which opposition constantly excites, even when its attacks
are directed against genius.
Born at Arques, February 17, 1777, son of Pierre Ducrotay and Catharine
Pauger, Marie-Henri de Blainville was fond of recounting that, although his
family was not numbered among the most illustrious of the province, it ascended,
nevertheless, to the fourteenth century ; that it was the issue of a Scotch gentle-
man who, holding nothing except by the tenure of cloak and sword, had received
from the place of his landing the name of Ducrotay. Having thus sheltered the
nobility of his family under the egis of Scottish loyalty, he would add that, un-
der Francis I, the government of the castle of Arques, which its position then
rendered an important post, was confided to one Robert Ducrotay; that the
fortunes of the family had been still further enhanced through a descendant of
the latter, who had the address to secure the favor of five successive monarchs,
had received particular marks of esteem from Henry III, and the confirmation
of his titles and franchises from Henry IV, to whom he had rendered valuable
service at the battle of Arques. It was in the bosom, therefore, of a family
proud of its historical recollections and jealous of its privileges that the first
moral impressions of the young Ducrotay de Blainville were formed.
He was the youngest son, and had the misfortune’to lose his father at an
early age. For the rudiments of education he was indebted to a neighboring
curate, and was transferred at a later period to the military school of Beaumont
en Ange, which was under the direction of the Benedictine monks of Saint
Maur, and of which it is eulogy enough to say that it had the honor of counting
Laplace among its pupils.
The revolutionary tempest, in dispersing the religious congregations, closed too
. soon for the young De Blainville this excellent source of instruction. He was
scarcely fifteen when he returned to a mother, weak and broken in spirits, whose
blind affection could maintain no adequate restraint over a youth of wayward
disposition. All that depends on the life of a father—all that avails the experi-
176 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
ence of the head of a family who conceals from the son who should support the
honor of his name none of the rude obligations of existence, is often only appre-
ciated after along series of deceptions. At tke age of nineteen, wishing to enter
into public service as an engineer, Henri de Blainville passed some months at
Rouen in a school of design. ‘The director of this establishment wrote to the
mother of his pupil: “ The character of the young man is intractable; his heart,
though vindictive, is not unrelenting; his greatest passion is a love of learning;
all the rest is a chaos of ill-combined ideas.”
To finish his studies he came to Paris, and scarcely was he there when even
the shadow of authority disappeared; he lost his mother. Delivered thence-
forth to his own guidance, too much independence became to him a dangerous
snare ; he abandoned himself to all the passions of his age, and surrounded by
trifling companions, sueceded very quickly and very gaily in dissipating his
whole patrimony.
Having attained this natural result of the life he was leading, he began to
reflect, and comprehended the necessity of supplying the resources of which he
had robbed his future existence. In his first efforts he did no more than put
forth a restless activity. By turns he appeared as a poet and essayist among
his friends, a zealous musician at the conservatory, and, in a celebrated studio,
a painter and designer of no little skill. ‘I'wo lofty principles, in the mean time,
survived in the soul of this young man—an exalted respect for his birth and a
love of knowledge.
The first of these two sentiments had, in truth, its perils; it gave rise to sin-
gular pretensions. M. de Blainville had preserved all the illusions of the
noblesse of the preceding age to such an extent that he could never, even when
his views had become sobered, entirely divest himself of the idea that by royal
prescript he was endowed with peculiar privileges. Among these, as that of
censure and authoritative assertion appeared to him the most precious, he made
use of it always and everywhere, and this rendered intercourse with him some-
what impracticable to such as did not choose to admit these obsolete claims of
feudalism.
The ardor for instruction, combined with the pious respect for family, saved
this restless nature by directing its extraordinary energy towards a noble aim.
When, shaking off the last delusions of an idle youth, our fiery gentleman found,
on attaining his twenty-eighth year, that he was ruined, without career and
without family, if a bitter regret sprung up within his heart he repressed it, and
appealing to a vigorous and unsubdued spirit, he put forth, in order to retrieve
himself, a courage worthy of his ancestors.
The crafty Phrygian slave, in ancient comedy, might exclaim: Buy your
master. M. de Blainville, though not indisposed to the same course, judged it
more prudent to comply with the tendencies of his age. Chance had conducted
him to the course of physics which Lefevre Gineau was then holding at the
College of France; and here was revealed to him a new charm, that of serious
application. He had presented himself to the professor as a modest neophyte,
but soon made himself sufficiently appreciated to be admitted into a house where
the associates of M. Gineau, all connected with the highest class of instruction,
were accustomed to assemble. It was in this circle cf eminent men that, for
the first time, he recognized his vocation. Nothing harmonized better with his
tastes and turn of mind than the authority of the chair and the dogmatic tone
of the mastér. ‘The commanding influence which superiority of knowledge ex-
ercises over men appeared to him the most enviable of attainments. He believed
that he had discovered the path which would one day conduct him to distine-
tion. From this moment persevering and ardent labor absorbed all his powers.
Submitting to judicious counsels, he entered, by a scrutinizing analysis of the
human organization, upon a career of original research, and made such extra-
ordinary efforts and rapid progress that afier two years passed in the amphi-
~e
MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. Ti
theatres and hospitals, he proved himself a not unworthy competitor even of
Bichat, by a remarkable disquisition on experimental and comparative physi-
ology.*
The report of this transformation of character, which must have been a mat-
ter of no little surprise, and perhaps chagrin, to the noble and gay companions
of his early youth, penetrated at length into the paternal manor-house, where
the eldest of the family of De Blainville still resided. ‘Do you know what has
become of your younger brother?” said one day a communicative traveller.
“Nothing good, I suppose.” “ Let me tell you, then, that he isina path which
will lead to great renown.” ‘“Impossible!’’ exclaimed the feudal Norman; “he
never had the least inclination for employment of any sort.”
The range of his earliest labors, his address, his birth, the singularity of his
outset, caused this new adept of science to be remarked from the first. In pur-
suing all the branches of instruction at the museum he met everywhere with
generous sympathy ; and it was in this great and first school of modern natural
history that were developed, during years of profound study, the pre-emi-
nent faculties of an intelligence destined to mark its passage by force of medita-
tion, boldness of views, and tenacity in controversy.
He first attached himself to zoology, and to this he gave a distinctive charac-
ter. Especially is this character observable in what he has left us respecting
the mollusks and the zoophytes.t| When he began to occupy himself with these
two groups of beings, all the principal divisions had already been established,
the type had been definitely determined, the classes formed, these classes
divided into orders ; but there remained the genera, a labor which required
peculiar sagacity, and in this De Blainville excelled.{ His conceptions of
the genera were such as Linnzus had entertained ; nor is this the sole parallel
which I discover between himself and that naturalist of so rare a cast. These
* This disquisition, which was his thesis, bore the following title: Propositions °
extracted from an Essay on Respiration, followed by some experiments on the influence of the
eighth pair Of nerves on respiration, presented and maintained at the School of Medicine of
Paris, August 30, 1808.
t His researches on the mollusks are his best labors in practical zoology. His Manual
of Malacology forms an eminent work in anatomy, physiology, and especially analytical
classification. This work, undertaken in 1814 for the Supplement of the British Encyclopedia,
was not published till 1825. Several fragments of it had appeared in the Dictionaire des
Sciences Naturelles, and the article Conchology of that compilation is reproduced in the
Supplement, with numerous additions. The article Mollusks is also given, with extensive
developments and new monographs. ‘‘I have drawn much,”’ says M. de Blainville, ‘‘ upon
the work of Lamarck for the number and distribution of living shells, and upon that of
Defrance for fossil shells. I think,’ he adds, very judiciously, ‘‘that the species have been
generally too much multiplied. We may sometimes derive benefit from these approxima-
tions of identical or analogous fossil species, although, as I intentionally repeat, we ought
not to place an unlimited confidence in them. In all parts of the natural sciences, what is
laid down to-day is almost always susceptible of being modified to-morrow.’ (He had
adopted as a general device of his writings, Dies diem docet—day teaches day.) He thus
recapitulates the spirit of his book: ‘‘It has been my object to show that the classification of
molluscous animals may very well accord with that of shells, and that consequently their
simultaneous study must have an influence on that of each of them.”
The Manual of Actinology or Zoophytology is also an important work, but must be ranked
after the former. It is the reproduction of the article Zoophytes of the Dictionary of Natural
Sciences, but much improved. ‘‘The plan I have followed,”’ he says, ‘‘is the same with
that which I had adopted for my Manual of Malacology; I have stated, in distinct chapters,
the generalities pertaining to the organization, physiology, and natural history of all the
animals heretofore confounded under the name of zoophytes. * * * * * Thave had
in view to cite all the genera which have been proposed, in order to supply the lacune
which might exist in the Dictionary of Natural Sciences, which is not a proof, however, that
we adopt them all. * * * *.”? The last phrase is, by its turn, characteristic of the man-
ner of M. de Blainville.
t Here de Blainville had two peculiar merits—merits which also distinguished
Linnzeus—that of marking the true character of each genus, and that of ranging the genera,
one in relation to the others, agreeably to an analytical view. See in another note what I
shall say of the series of beings.
PES
178 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
two are perhaps the only methodical writers whose fire is not extinguished in
the treatment of details. Linnzeus gives life to those details by inventiveness of
expression ; De Blainville animates them in another manner, by making them
the vehicle of his preconceived and impassioned ideas.*
From zoology De Blainville passed without delay to comparative anatomy.
In these galleries, then so new, everything recalled to him the profound admi-
ration which he had felt when, confounded in the crowd, he had for the first time
heard the eloquent voice of the inspired restorer of the ancient science of Aris-
totle.t But this admiration itself awaked all his critical instincts, and already the
daring resolution was formed within him of some day venturing upon opposi-
tion. While he was thus musing upon the grounds of dissent and independence,
the penetrating regards of the man of genius had more than once rested upon
him. Cuvier coveted for science such proselytes; he sought them out, welcomed
them, opened to them his house and library, gave them a share in his affections,
and all in the utmost good faith, so long as they remained satellites of his re-
nown; but when, once become strong, they ventured to contest the part of the
lion, the alliance was broken.
One day, De Blainville, absorbed in meditation, saw Cuvier approach him—
the great Cuvier, then at the apogee of his brilliant career.‘ I have a proposal
to make to you,” said the man of science to him whom labor alone had as yet
designated to him, and whom he addressed for the first time. ‘ Are you dis-
posed to unite your efforts with mine in the eompletion of a great work on com-
parative anatomy with which I have been occupied for along time? You shall
have a share in my success: we shall aid one another.’ Tempted by the gratifi-
cation which a man of merit feels at being appreciated, appreciated, too, by a
superior intelligence, De Blainville promptly accepted the offer of collaboration.
No sooner, however, was he thus established in the first rank among the disci-
ples, many of them already celebrated, who lent their efforts to the execution
of works whose projection belonged exclusively to the master, than M. de
Blainville, who could never bear even the shadow of subordination, gave place
in his bosom to the feelings of a jealous susceptibility. He took tinea com-
plained with acrimony, and was heard with indulgence, even with kindness; for
much should be pardoned to him who merits much. But from the time that the
right of censure was conceded, the intractable disciple established it on so wide
a base that M. Cuvier used to say pleasantly: “Ask M. de Blainville his
opinion on any subject whatever, or even simply say to him good day, and his
reply will be, ‘No.’ ”
Compelled to a state of permanent warfare, Cuvier at least knew how to profit
by it; it discovered to him all the exposed points of his doctrines; all were
promptly seized upon by a watchful antagonist, who, in these attacks, seemed
charged with the office of those priests of antiquity who daily repeated to kings,
in the midst of their grandeur, Forget not that you are men. In requital of
services so gratuitously rendered, the master, at once judicious and adroit, neg-
lected nothing to promote the interests of this singular collaborator. After having
for ten years fulfilled a course at the athenzeum, he asked the succession for De
Blainville; selected him to supply his appointments at the College of France
and the Museum; and when the faculty of sciences was to choose a professor of
anatomy and zoology, took care to environ him as a candidate with all the means
of success. M. de Blainville was nominated, and, with independence thus
secured, acquired an absolute liberty of opposition which he used by no means
sparingly.
* Since he proceeds from ideas to facts, each new detail fot.nd is necessarily, as regards:
the preconceived idea which guides him, a peril or a proof; there is no room for indifference.
t M. de Blainville himself cheerfully acknuwleged that the brilliant success of Cuvier
as a professor had greatly contributed to the impulse which directed all his own energies
towards natural history.
‘MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 179
He had made no mistake in the choice of a vocation; it was in the chair of
the professor especially that De Blainville succeeded in giving lustre to his
scientific career. He possessed in the highest degree that ready affluence of
ideas, that animated turn of expression, that authoritative tone, which at once
overmaster and allure the hearer. He preferred to a calm and judicious caution
in sowing the seeds of knowledge, the forms of a bold and imposing logic. To
some young and inflammable heads he thus succeeded in communicating an ardent
sympathy for the disciple who reared himself in contradiction to a great master ;
and yet that master was Cuvier, in whose fame the youth of France so justly
exulted, but in whom they now sought, with a certain malice, to assail the su-
periority of the savant, forgetful of the claims of a noble and independent sim-
plicity.
Such successes on the part of De Blainville were not calculated to render
relations between the two more complacent. At the close of a sojourn in England,,
De Blainville returned enriched with scientific materials, and Cuvier, supposing
liis just supremacy to be still respected, asked to have them communicated to,
him. The traveller contented himself with saying: “ In order that they may
be more readily at your disposal, I am going to publish them.’ Thus all things.
portended a rupture, a pretext for which, with so unconformable a nature as.
that of De Blainville, could not long be wanting. Cuvier might regret the op~
position of an original and powerful intellect, but he knew at least how to derive:
from it the advantages of contradiction. As for De Blainville, he deprived
himself of the benefit of intimate contact with an exalted mind, endowed with,
every quality requisite for counselling and directing: right reason, luminous.
tranquillity of thought, and that good sense which is the real sovereign and final:
judge of everything in this world.
In the rudest shocks of life, the energetic man whose character I am con-
sidering seemed to find in labor renewed strength. His cotemporaries could not
but wonder at the vigor infused into his studies: profound researches, bold: dis-
cussions, exhaustive historical retrospects,* nothing, in fine, seemed to weary
the indefatigable elasticity of this ardent and active mind. In 1822 he published
the first volume of a general treatise on comparative anatomy,? and with this
work a new doctrine made its appearance. Cuvier had just reared the science
on the experimental method, which proceeds from facts to ideas. In the efforts
of De Blainville this order was reversed, and all his labors were based upon the
opposite method.
His first care was to form an abstract type of the living being. Buffon had
said: “ We can distinguish in the animal economy two parts, of which the first
acts perpetually, without any interruption, and the second acts only at inter-
vals. ‘The action of the heart and lungs appears to be that first part; the
action of the senses and the movement of the body and members seem to be the
second.’ This view became the principle of Bichat’s celebrated distinetion of
two lives—organic life and animal life. Buffon proceeds to say: “If we clothe
the interior part with a suitable envelope—that is to say, if we give to it senses
and members—the animal life will presently manifest itself, and the more senses,
members, and other exterior parts the envelope contains, the more complete will
* The Dictionary of Natural Sciences contains a great number of very considerable
articles by M. de Blainville, who was at the same time one of the most active collaborators
of the Bulletin de la Societé Philumathique. It may be added, and with literal truth, that
during the whole militant life of our savant there appeared nothing on natural histoyy which
did not undergo on his part a sort of adverse discussion. Placed by the legacy of his friend
M. de Lamétherie at the head of the Journal of Physics, he furnished, from 1818 to 1822,
a series of historical reswmés, in reading which one cannot fail to be struck with the extent
and variety of the knowledge displayed.
t This volume, the only one he published, is entitled ‘‘ De ’ Organization des Animauz,
ou Principes d’ Anatomie Comparée,”’ and is occupied with the study of the skin and apparatus
of the senses in all the classes.
e
180 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
the animal life appear, and the more perfect will be the animal.” M. de Blain
ville combines the two ideas of Buffon. In effect, there are, in life itself, two
lives, the life of nutrition and that of sensation. Of the general envelope, Buffon
saw but the exterior part, the seat of the sensations; M. de Blainville sees this
envelope continued, turned inward, penetrating into the interior, and becoming
there the seat of the respiratory and digestive functions. And, as there are two
lives, so are there two grand systems of apparatus, the vascular and the nervous
apparatus; and on these two depend all the organs: on the first the organs of
sense and of motion; on the second the organs of secretion and nutrition. |
The abstract type of the living being once established, a new frame-work is
furnished to M. de Blainville wherein all the details of comparative anatomy—
details almost infinite in number—become classified and concentrated. The
different structures appear only as realized instances of one first conception.
The dogmatic process is substituted for the experimental, and M. de Blainville,
having impressed the science with the form of his own genius and originality,
might also consider himself a master, and a great master.*
So many and such strenuous labors had long since marked out for M. de
Blainville a place in the Academy; he was called to it in 1825.t In 1830, a
royal ordinance having divided into two that part of the instruction of the Mu-
seum devoted to the demonstration of invertebrate animals, he was naturally
designated, from his admirable labors on the mollusks and zoophytes, for the
occupancy of one of the chairs. ‘Thus, though late in his application to the
sciences, he had acquired the best position which they can confer, and saw the
destiny accomplished which he had traced for himself when, in a moment of
spleen, he had said to Cuvier: “I shall take my seat one day at the Institute
and the Museum, beside you, in face of you, and in spite of you.” The last
phrase was an injustice, for it assumed an animosity which did not exist; but
it would have been to diminish the enjoyment to have ceased to believe in it :
experience had simply proved to Cuvier the difficulty of their relations, and had
made him distrustful of them.
M. de Blainville had now arrived at that age when a man of superior intellect
feels the necessity of connecting his collective ideas by some philosophic bond.
His long studies on zoology had led him to see in the animal kingdom only a
continuous series of beings, which, becoming at each stage more animated, more
sensitive, more intelligent,t ascend from the most inferior animals up to man;
an elevated view, which was that of Aristotle in antiquity, as it was that of
Leibnitz in modern times. “The continuity of gradations,” says Aristotle,
“conceals the limits which separate beings, and withdraws from the eye the
point which divides them.” “I love maxims which are self-supporting,” said
Leibnitz; and we know that, to have such maxims, he had conceived the idea
of reducing them all to one. His philosophy has but one principle, that of con-
tinuity. Hach being, in the globe that we inhabit, is connected with all others,
and that globe itself with all globes. “ With M. Leibnitz,” said Fontenelle, “one
would have seen either the end of things, or that they have no end.”
Never has a scientific idea experienced more vicissitudes than that of the scale
of beings. All the naturalists of the eighteenth century admit it. ‘‘ The progres-
sion of nature is effected by insensible shadings,” says Buffon. ‘ Nature makes
* It is to be regretted that this production, conceived with so much vigor, should have
remained incomplete. It would be difficult to find a mind suited for the continuation of the
work, and capable of reducing the whole of comparative anatomy to the dogmatic form.
+ He had been presented as early as 1814, and even at that early period with just title,
to replace M. Olivier.
t This idea of series was with him always predominant. See especially his remark-
able Prodrome d’une Nouvelle Distribution Systématique du Régne Animal, 1816; his article
on the word Animal, in the Supplément du Dictionaire des Sciences Naturelles, published in
1840, and his great work Osteographie Comparée.
2
MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 181
no leaps,” exclaims Linneus. Bonnet exhausts himself in well-meant etforts to
find everywhere equivocal species with which to supply vacancies. At length
Cuvier appears, and all idea of continuity, of sequence, is excluded. The animal
kingdom is distributed into groups; definite, circumscribed, profoundly separated,
without connexion, without transition. Cuvier is followed by M. de Blainville ;
and with him the serves of beings reappears, and now at least with more develop-
ment and completeness,* more nearly demonstrated throughout, and, what is
here the last step, essentially connected with the doctrine, every day better un-
derstood and more respected, of final causes.t
The chain of beings thus linked together and adapted one to another evidently
implies a fixed design, a consistent.plan, an end foreseen. Final causes are the
highest philosophic expression of our sciences, and at the same time the most
cheering ; it is a pleasure of a high order to discover and contemplate that won-
derful assemblage of so many different forms and forces combined in proportions
so just. ‘The spectacle of an infinite wisdom diffuses calm over the human spirit.
“Tt is no small thing,” said Leibnitz, ‘to be content with God and with the uni-
verse.” :
In 1832 a severe blow was sustained by science; Cuvier was too soon lost
tous. The administration of the Museum decided to transfer M. de Blainville
to the chair in which the modern Aristotle had achieved immortality. From
that time, it was in the close neighborhood of the collections, due to a half cen-
tury of inappreciable labors, that M. de Blainville, a vigilant and almost jealous
guardian, pitched his tent; it was a true tent, an abode worthy of our savants
of the middle age, where he reproduced both their long meditations and their
exhaustless enthusiasm.
* In order properly to understand M. de Blainville in his different labors, regard must
everywhere be had to the profound influence exercised upon him by M. Cuvier. The proof
of this influence will be found even in this question of the animal series, which is one of
those on which he has most constantly opposed him.
M. Cuvier, taking the nervous system as a guide, had established four principal divisions
of the animal kingdom—the vertebrata, the motlusca, the articulata, and the radiata or
zoophytes. It is on the nervous system also that M. de Blainville constructs his theory, only
he separates the last division of M. Cuvier, that of the radiata, into two, which gives him
five divisions instead of four—the osteozoa, which answer to the vertebrata; the entomozoa,
which correspond to the articulata; the malacozoa to the mollusks ; the actinozoa and the
‘amorphozoa, which represent the radiata. Such are the five grand types of the animal
kingdom, and it is easy to perceive how upon these is established the ascending series or
scale. Mounting by successive steps from the amorphozoa to the osteozoa, he passes to the
consideration of this latter great type, and instead of the four classes—mammals, birds,
reptiles, and fishes—he subdivides it into seven—mammals, birds, pterodactyls, (a lost class
of reptiles, ) reptiles, icthyosauri, (another lost class of reptiles, ) amphibia, (the batrachians
of Cuvier,) and fishes. Here alsoit may easily be seen how the ascending scale is developed;
it remounts from fishes to amphibia, from amphibia to icthyosauri, from these to reptiles, trom
reptiles to pterodactyls, from the latter to birds, and from birds to mammals. The class of
mammals is divided into three sub-classes—monodelphs, didelphs, and ornithodelphs ; and
here again the same ascending gradation is seen, from ornithodelphs to didelphs, and from
these to monodclphs. Without entering into further details, it will be seen from what has
been stated how M. de Blainville modifies, and almost always multiplies, by subdividing,
the groups of M. Cuvier; how he connects, while inteecalating in his scale, the lost with the
living species ; how he applies to the groups themselves, to types, to classes, to orders, &c.,
the ideas of series, gradation, ascent, which had till then been more particularly applied to
species. His scale is, in the first place, the scale of groups; but he does not stop there.
Just as in the entire kingdom there is the series of principal groups or types, there is in
each type the series of classes, in each class the series of orders, in each order the series of
genera, in each genus the series of species. It is a succession of series superposed in line,
always ascending and always direct.
t ‘The conception of jinal causes,” says M. de Blainville, ‘‘leads rigorously and
necessarily to the demonstration of a Being whose intelligence is infinite, and enables us to
discern, not only for each created being in itself, but for each group of beings, and in the
whole assemblage of beings, a plan, a necessary harmony, and within the preconceived
limits.’ * * * * * (Article: Animal of the Suppl. du Dict. des Sciences Naturelles.)
‘
¢
182 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE
Passing his life in a sombre apartment, buried in the depths of a vast arm-
chair, encompassed with a triple rampart of heaps of books, original drawings,
anatomical preparations and disordered instruments, if sometimes a studious dis-
ciple obtained admittance to him, it was necessary to surmount more than one
obstacle, and not less difficult to find a chair than a place for it when found. If at
length, after this difficult installation, reference to some volume became necessary
in the heat of research, it must be drawn generally from the base of a mountain
of books, whose displacement was not the less chaotic and tumultuous for being
often repeated. Did an adventurous visitor, after much solicitation, obtain ac-
cess to the inviolable asylum, when as yet he was scarcely more than on the
threshold, and without a sense of Iris presence being manifested by any move-
ment, a grave and sonorous voice would address to him the invariable question :
What is needed for your service, Monsieur? The stranger, sometimes, discon-
certed by the apparently inextricable confusion of thelabyrinth before him, or aware
too late of the inconvenience imposed on a profound thinker by the derangement
of his ideas, would seek safety in a hasty retreat. But if the first expressions
of the visitor disclosed a personage worthy of a learned conference, M. de Blain-
ville, at once raising his head and divesting himself of the thoughts in which he
was absorbed, would employ all the advantages which his facile elocution placed
at the service of a vast fund of knowledge, and the auditor, charmed by so
much courtesy, might expose himself, by prolonging his visit, to the danger
that after his departure the laborious savant should once more repeat the phrase :
Another hour lost. Was it a former pupil, on the other hand, who came to clear
up some questionable point, he might with confidence surmount every barrier
and count on the most cordial reception; for, if M. de Blainville exacted from
his disciples a species of feudal fidelity and homage, he at least requited it by
an affection which was little less than paternal.
It was from this sanctuary of study that, after having been long held in re-
serve, there issued one day, in full panoply, like Minerva from the brain of
Jupiter, the emphatic contradiction of all the arguments on which Cuvier had
founded the new science of paleontology.
The first germ of this surprising science of Jost existences rested on the old
belief of a general and ancient deluge. In vain did the scholastic philosophy
pretend that fossil shells were only sports of nature ; in vain did the philosopher
Voltaire, who, for very unphilosophic reasons, would not admit, on any terms,
that there had been a deluge, send forth his pilgrims to seek for an explanation
of the dispersion of marine shells: neither sporss of nature nor pilgrims availed
anything. Sustained by the evidence of the fact and by ineffaceable tradition,
the common sense of mankind asserted its right of dissent.
In the seventeenth century, attention, which had been excited by the fossil
shells, was transferred to the gigantic bones preserved in the bowels of the earth,
and whose origin was not involved in less obscurity. In 1696 some bones of the
elephant were discovered in the principality of Gotha. The Grand Duke called
together his council of savants, and the council pronounced, with unanimity,
that these were sports of nature. About the same time were found in the prov-
ince of Dauphiny some bones of the animal which we now call the mastodon.
A surgeon of the country buys these bones and has them brought to Paris,
where he exhibits them for money, affirming in his advertisement that they
were taken from a sepulchre thirty feet long, and that they are the remains of a
giant, a king of one of the tribes of barbarians who were defeated near the
Rhone by Marius. All Paris was eager to see this trophy of the glory of
Marius; and, agreeably to its almost constant usage, Paris, after having at first
believed all that was told it, presently made a mock of all that it had at first
believed.
With the eighteenth century comes at last a serious study of the subject.
Gmelin and Pallas bring to our knowledge the fossil bones of Siberia; they inform
I
MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 183
us that these bones are found there in prodigious quantity, comprising those of
the rhinoceros, the elephant, and gigantic ruminants. Who shall be the fortu-
nate interpreter of these strange facts? Gmelin and Pallas conclude that a vast
irruption of the sea, from the southeast, could alone have transported into the
regions of the north these extraordinary relics, which all pertain to animals of
the south. Buffon, now almost an octogenarian, conceives, with more pene-
trating insight, the idea of Jost species. “The bones preserved in the bosom of
the earth are witnesses,” he says, “as authentic as unexceptionable, of the past
existence of different colossal species of all the races now in existence.” And
with eloquent emotion, he adds: “It is with regret that I quit these precious
monuments of ancient nature, which my advanced age does not leave me time
to examine. This study of beings which have disappeared would alone require
more time than remains for me to live, and I can only recommend it to posterity.
Others,” he continues, “will come after me * * *;” and the prophecy has
been fulfilled. To the honor of our age, Cuvier creates for himself a new art;
he touches these scattered remains, and recalls before our astonished eyes ghe
extinct races of the earth.
He interrogates each stratum of the earth, and each yields him a peculiar
population. He finds first the crustacea, the mollusks, the fishes ; then reptiles,
then mammals, but mammals of which the race no longer exists: the races
which exist to-day he finds only on the present surface of the earth. It follows
that life is developed only gradually, progressively; and the admirable theory
of the succession of beings arises and offers itself as the surest deduction from
the best-established observations. There have been, according to Cuvier, re-
peated but partial and successive creations: these multiple populations have
gone on improving at the same time that they were diversified ; and for the sud-
den disappearance of so many species at once, nothing less could have been
necessary than violent and abrupt causes.
M. de Blainville takes up each of these propositions, one after the other, and
contests them all.* He adopts a single and simultaneous creation; a first and
* The following four propositions, whose elements are drawn from his great work on
Osteography, form a. comprehensive summary of the ideas of M. de Blainville on paleon-
tology: First, a creation, single and consequently complete; secondly, that creation, com-
plete at the moment when it proceeded from the hand of God, becomes afterwards incom-
plete in proportion as species perish, for each race becoming extinct leaves a gap; thirdly,
causes the most natural, the most simple, the action of may, &c., have sufficed to destroy
the extinct races, as they still suffice to destroy before our eyes the living races; fourthly,
there is therefore no need, in order to explain these continuous destructions, of having
recourse to general and extraordinary revolutions, to cataclysms.
Proposition 1. There has been but one creation. ‘‘We may find here,” says M. de Blain-
ville, with reference to the manatee, ‘‘a new proof that the fossil species, whose analogues
we no longer recognize, are but extinct terms of the animal series produced by the thought
of the creative power, and by no means, as has been too often said, and is still repeated
every day, the remains of an ancient creation, which has given place to a new and more
perfect one—an assertion easy to make, but incapable of being sustained by any legitimate
ee in favor of so rash an opinion.” (Manatus, p. 128.) In speaking of pal@ocherium,
1e says: ‘‘ Although none of these species have been found alive, we are yet forced to con-
clude that it is impossible to admit with certain naturalists that they can be considered as a
primitive form of some existing species which are but a transformation of them, and still less
that these have replaced them in consequence of a new creation, as many say, without good
reasons it is true, since we have shown that they fill an actual chasm in the intelligible
series created by divine power for an intelligent purpose.” (Pal@othertums, p. 153.) With
reference to two or three fossil species of the rhinoceros, he says: ‘‘ There are two or three
links of the animal series which have been destroyed before other congeners, existing still
in less inhabited parts of the ancient continent, and which can in no manner be considered as
transformations of the former, and still less as the product of a new creation, as it is at
present somewhat the fashion to suppose for each stratum of the sedimentary formations.”
Rhinoceros, p. 222.)
Proposition 2. This single creation, at first complete, presents at present vacancies which
extinct species supply. ‘‘These mammals,” says M. de Blainville, alluding to certain
‘
184 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
complete population, subject to incessant extinctions; and for this continuous
destruction he requires nothing but slow and ordinary causes. You pretend,
he exclaims, that at each of your supposed revolutions the great Author of
created beings has recommenced his work! But observe first the general
resemblance which allies the living with the lost species; notwithstanding
all your sagacity, you have not succeeded in distinguishing, by any certain
criterion, the fossil elephant from the present elephant of the Indies.* You are
forced to acknowledge that, among animal fossils, there are many found which
differ in nothing from living animals.t The facts on which you found your
theory are therefore insufficient and incomplete; and incomplete facts cannot be
prescribed as a limit to our conjectures.
In default of complete facts of which he, no more than Cuvier, is possessed,
M. de Blainville seeks a higher reason which may supply its place and deliver
his impatient spirit from the pain of hesitation. This higher reason seems to
him to consist in the wnity of the kingdom of nature; and here science is indebted
to him for an important step in advance. So long as he had confined himself
to"the study of present species, the animal series had everywhere presented to
him gaps and vacuities; everywhere beings were found wanting. At this
species of smaller bears pertaining to the same orders, the same families, and to the same
Linnzean genera with those which still live on the earth, ‘tare not, however, always of like
species; but they fill in an admirable manner the gaps which the living animal series at
present offers.” (Sub-ursus.) ‘‘ As a definite conclusion,’ says M. de Blainville, ‘‘ we find
in the dinotherias, which seem to have disappeared at a very early period from the surface
of the earth, a step, a term in that animal series which religious philosophy, the only true and
good one, unavoidably accepts, but which science demonstrates the more easily in propor-
tion as the question is judiciously considered, and a greater number of elements can be
employed.” (Dinotherium, p. 61.)
Proposition 3. The extinct races have perished through natural causes, which are still
acting every day. ‘The largest species are those which have first disappeared; and we may
even now observe that the same thing is taking place under our eyes in regard to the species
still existing on the surface of the earth.”’ (Sub-wrsus, p. 116.) ‘The rhinoceros is in the
condition of the elephants, which, because of their great size and their biennial uni-parturi-
tion, perish earlier—that is, first among terrestrial animals—as a consequence especially of
the multiplication of the human species upon the earth.’’ (Rhinoceros, p. 221.) He says of
some species of fossil viverra: ‘‘'These species have disappeared, as we see disappear at
present, by little and little, the genet, the civet, and the ichneumon, though half domes-
ticated.”’ (Viverra, p. 94.)
Proposition 4. There has not since the creation of living beings been any general and
extraordinary revolution of the globe. M. de Blainville says, in speaking of bears: ‘“‘A
single species of this genus has ceased to exist, a species which in Europe completed the
genus, as it is complete in Asia and America; a feebler species, and inhabiting the part of
Europe most anciently civilized, and at the same time, perhaps, the most pepulous, which
must have hastened its disappearance from the number of beings at present in existence; so
that the state of things in relation to this genus would demand no cataclysm, no change in
the present conditions of existence of the earth, but only incessant progress in the develop-
ment of the human species in Europe.” (Bears, p. 88.) ‘‘The bones of fossil small bears
might have been carried, whether united or separated, and often already broken, with mate-
riais of different nature borne by the atmospheric waters into the places of deposit, where we
now find some of them by hazard, without there having been required catastrophe or change
in the ambient mediums to determine their destruction.”” (Sub-ursus, p. 115.)
*~ The fossil elephant of M. Cuvier—the mammoth of Russia—is, according to M. de
Blainville, only the present elephant of Asia. ‘‘ The definite result, to which we are con-
ducted by a rigorous logic, is that in the actual state of our collections, at least,at the
Museum of Paris, it is still nearly impossible to prove that the fossil elephant, of which so
many remains are found in the earth, differs specifically from the still existing elephant of
ndia,”’
t ‘*There are some doubtful species, which will affect more or less the certainty of
results so long as precise distinctions shall not have been reached respecting them. Tlius,
the horses, the buffaloes, which are found with the elephants, have net as yet peculiar
specific characters; and the geologists who do not choose to adopt my different epochs for
the fossil bones will still be able to derive from them an argument so much the more con-
venient as it is from my book they will take it.” (Cuvier. Discourse on the Revolutions of
the Surface of the Globe.)
MEMO’R OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 185
point, by a happy inspiration of genius, he discerns in nature which has per-
ished the beings which are wanting in nature as it exists,* and, with surprising
skill, he interealates among living species the fossil species ; thus asserting, and,
first among naturalists, discovering to us the wnity ef the animal kingdom.
That kingdom is therefore one, and the unity of that kingdom seems the first
demonstrated point in the unity of creation.
Having thus stated the opposite opinions of the two authors, let us turn to
their methods, which will be found not less opposed. Cuvier follows facts,
alike resolved to wait for them however slowly they may arrive, and to accept
the result which they yield him, whatever it may be: whether the theory of
successive creations, if species continue to be found everywhere separated and
superposed, or the theory of a single and simultaneous creation, should it be
found eventually that they occur anywhere intermingled and confounded.
M. de Blainville assumes a great fact, which he transforms into a principle: the
fact of the unity of the animal kingdom, and from that unity he boldly deduces
the unity of creation. Thus there is, on one side, always the experimental
method, with its process sure and its results uncertain; on the other, always
the dogmatic method, with its result presented as certain, but obtained by a
process which is not sure.
The human mind in making use of methods and judging them has this quality
of excellence, that it finds no repose except in the full and entire knowledge of
things. It is this restless seeking for truth, a movement impressed upon tke
mind by a divine impulse, which constitutes its force in labor and its joy in
discovery. In the new study which we have been considering, a multitude of
facts, i mean necessary facts, are still wanting to us. We have explored but a
part of the surface of the globe. There are places where, in reference to so
grave a discussion, nature may well be surprised at not having been interro-
gated. There will arise intrepid explorers who will lay open unknown regions.
There will arise new thinkers. 'The noble science of Cuvier and De Blainville—
for, from the very opposition of ideas, the two names will remain united—has
reached that elevated point at which it is able to propound with precision the
problem upon which it is divided; and this problem of the successive or simut-
taneous order of created beings is surely, in the domain of natural history, one
of the grandest which the genius of men has ever conceived.
Absorbed in contemplations of so high a nature, M. de Blainville became less
and less disposed to comply with those relations of amenity which render life
easy. To excuse himself to his own conscience, he attributed to rigidity of
principle what was at best but error of judgment. He was now in possession
of the substantial privileges of suecess; but this did not diminish his pretensions.
He brought them all into this Academy, in spite of the admonition given us by
Fontenelle: “Here it was intended that everything should be simple; that no
one should think himself under an obligation to be im the right; that no system
should govern, and that the door should always remain open for truth.” To
one who had but too well learned in the professor’s chair the full value of the
law of the strongest, this privilege of being in the right appeared intolerable
when it no longer applied to himself alone. In replies marked by a tone of
peremptory authority, M. de Blainville was apt to forget that he had descended
from the chair, and that here all the seats are equal. ‘ Doubtless,” as was said
by the sagacious historian just cited in speaking of one of his colleagues, “ the
‘search for truth demands in the Academy liberty of contradiction; but all society
* Nothing in the book of M. de Blainville is at the same time more ingenious and
true than this remark, namely, that the more lacune a group of mammifers presents, the
more vacancies between its living species, so much the greater is the number of fossil species
which it counts. The actual pachyderms afford only scattering species, and there are many
fossil pachyderms. The monkeys, on the other hand, present numerous aud closely crowded
species, and there are few fossil monkeys, &c.
186 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
exacts in contradiction a certain deference, and he did not recollect that the
Academy isa society. We did not cease to discern his merit through his man-
ner, but for this some little effort of equity was required, and that effort it is
always better to spare mankind the trouble of making.”
Not that these ‘efforts of equity’? were wanting in the case of M. de Blain-
ville, any more than the terror with which, by his fierce attacks and stubborn
disputativeness, he had succeeded in inspiring the most hardy academicians.
He seemed at the last to have adopted an extreme resolution ; and,
As if he had designed
To break all terms of commerce with mankind,
he withdrew from our reunions, and, in the spirit of Moliere’s Alcestis, who
yearned to find— °
Some nook of earth, if earth such nook can give,
Where honest candor might have leave to live,
he fairly barricaded himself, as has been shown, in the depths of his cabinet.
He had undertaken to give, in a great work on comparative osteography,™ ~
the description and demonstration of the collections confided to him, and super-
intended, with characteristic severity of attention, the drawings which none
could better judge of than himself. ‘This enterprise involved enormous expense,
and had every claim to the encouragement which authority everywhere extends
to vast and important publications. It was but simple justice that the work
should be placed under the patronage of the government. But to obtain this,
it would have been necessary to make suit, or, at least, submit his claims, and
never was misanthrope more singularly bent on preserving all the prerogatives
of an intractable humor. Taking high ground, and with reason, in regard to
the value of the author and the work, he assumed that his wishes should haye
been anticipated and his acceptance solicited ; for, over and above the hatred
which he had vowed to the human race, he endowed with a superior and priv-
ileged degree of irritation all that bore the guise of authority, and that by
which we were then governed chafing him in his prepossessions as a gentleman,
he could not be brought to condescend so far as to honor it with a request.
He suffered of course, complained bitterly, and had the satisfaction of accusing
all the world: colleges, Academy, ministry, government, all were culpable, all
except himself, who would abate no jot of his punctiliousness, and thereby only
succeeded in dispelling all possibility of finishing his learned and gigantic
catalogue. '
This man, whose captious spirit took fire at the very appearance of a favor
conferred by power, and whose antecedents by no means announced a concilia-
tor, employed himself, about this time, in a work of the most delicate concilia-
tion. Under the title of a History of the Sciences of Organization, adopted as a
Basis of Philosophy,t he published, in 1845, a work whose object, he said, was
the alliance of philosophy and religion.
Always led away by preconceived views, he carries into history the same
method as into philosophy. He constitutes types: Aristotle is the type of the
natural sciences in antiquity, Albert the Great in the middle ages, and, in our
* The title of this work is: Osteography, or a Comparative Iconographic Description
of the Skeleton and Dental System of the Five Classes of Vertebrate Animals, Recent and
Fossil, to Serve as a Basis for Zoology and Geology. 1839-'50. It is from the ideas scat-
tered in different parts otf this great work, incomplete as it unfortunately is, that I have
derived the paleontological doctrine of M. de Blainville; for he had not the same good fortune
with M. Cuvier, of collecting in a single discours the sum of his researches and views.
Death surprised him’ before he had finished his task; and to reproduce now the doctrine
which he labored with so much fearlessness and ardor, we have but scattered elements, often
left incompletein unfinished pages.
t In this work M. Abbé Manfried co-operated with him, and it is scarcely necessary
to say that my remarks only apply to that part of the book pertaining to M. de Blainville.
MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 187
own days, M. de Lamarck. He nearly suppresses all the rest of naturalists, and,
in his impassioned delineations, fails to remember that history is a judge, and
that’ the first duty of a judge is impartiality. Nor is he less rash as a diplo-
matist than historian: seeking the first principles of his philosophy in Lamarck,
Gall, and Broussais, whom he calls the three great philosophers of our age, and
thus encumbered with no light baggage of materialism, he ventures into uncer-
tain paths, and misses the only sure one, which Bossuet had followed in his
immortal treatise of the Knowledge of God and of ourselves. But it was labor
and time lost. The science of organization cannot be the basis of philosophy.
The domains are separated. What we now call philosophy, what Descartes
called, by a more precise term, metaphysics, has but one object, profoundly cir-
cumscribed—the study of the soul.
As an analytical appreciation of the progress of the human mind in the
natural sciences, the book of M. de Blainville had been preceded by one of M.
Cuvier on the same subject,* a production slowly matured and of a calmer spirit.
In comparing the latter work with the other, one is involuntarily reminded of
the well-known line :
My phlegm’s as philosophic as your spleen.
A wide interval separates the penetrating sagacity which detects the weak side
in the ideas of others from the deliberate reflection which sits in judgment on its
own. 'l'oo impatient to subject his theories to a severe analysis, but too pru-
dent to leave them exposed to attacks which might incur danger, M. de Blain-
ville made use of stratagem: he carried the war among his adversaries, and,
allowing them neither peace nor truce, compelled them to hold themselves always
on the defensive.
The necessity of success, an implacable tyrant, in him inspired by turns the
stubborn disputant and the fascinating professor; and it was because in the
latter character success was certain that in entering upon the functions of the
master, not only did he put forth all his intellectual superiority, but he ds-
played likewise his better moral qualities: the confidence of being useful, the
hope of being loved, the charm of appreciation, removed then all the asperities
of the surfaca The sentiment of recognized pre-eminence sufficed to dispel all
roughness and pretension ; and confident of his strength, nor yet affecting any
concealment of his efforts, he gained much by being seen in this light. One
day, at the exit from a lecture, a former scholar drew near in order to congratu-
late him on the happy manner in which he had just treated an important ques-
tion. “I am glad that you are satisfied,” rejoined M. de Blainville; “the
subject was difficult, and for eight days I have meditated upon this lecture from
nine o’clock in the morning until midnight.”” This avowal discovers a strict
conscientiousness, for no one ever possessed more than he the gift of brilliant
improvisation. He has been known, after an hour and a half occupied in rich
and animated lecturing, on being excited by some objection, to begin anew to
discourse and argue, with closed doors, regaining at once all his strength and re-
sources, conceding nothing, and remaining always the last champion in the field.
An ardor like this for disputation subjected to singular vicissitudes friendships
which certainly ran no risk of growing languid through dull acquiescence. The
faithful associate,t the sage Pylades of this impetuous Orestes, once said to me:
“ For nearly half a century that our intimacy has lasted, it has been rather
cherished and cemented by discussion than by perfect agreement.” In effect,
if M. de Blainville obtained, sooner than suited him, a triumph for the thesis
* Ispeak of the reproduction of the lectures of M. Cuvier at the College of France,
published under the title of Histoire des Sciences Naturelle Depuis leur Origine Jusqu’d nos
jours.
t Our learned colleague, M. Constant Prevost, who pronounced at the tomb of his
fliend a discourse full of the sensibility which is inspired by profound affection.
188 MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE.
which he was supporting, he would presently take in hand the opposite thesis.
But what, it would be impatiently asked, what then is decidedly your opinion ?
Is it yes? No, it is not yes. Isit xo? I have just proved to you that it can
not be zo. It must needs, however, be one or the other; decide. Ok ho! he
would exclaim, you forget, then, that 1am a Norman. And in him everything,
physical as well as moral, recalled that origin. He was of medium stature, but
of a remarkable vigor. His eye, lively, penetrative, observant, revealed a supe-
rior nature. ‘The simplicity of his exterior denoted his confidence in a personal
value which chose to borrow nothing from honorary distinctions, distinctions for
which he manifested a plenary indifference. No ostentation, no petty vanity
sunk this man to a lower level. He seemed to have settled in his own mind
that by study alone can life be invested with dignity or value.*
Under all its envelopes, and | however seemingly impenetrable, the heart, when
once touched, was but the more unreserved in its effusions. Become possessor
of the small manorial domain of his ancestors, M. de Blainville returned yearly
to visit its shores and hills, to breathe the invigorating air of the sea, and to re-
call the tender images which had soothed his earlier years. During the time
that he thus occupied his little manor, the man of science disappeared, and the
gentleman showed himself no cynic. An unaffected amiability accompanied
him into society, and in that of ladies especially he displayed a playfulness and
good taste which banished into the distant and lowering horizon of science every
misanthropic impulse. His delight in the revival of associations found other
aliment in the reunion of the representatives of all the epochs of his lite. Fre-
quently assembled around him on such occasions, this circle of friends was open
to all philosophies, to the most opposite opinions, to all social positions, to every
age. For the youngest among them the severe critic and profound thinker ever
entertained a warm and watchful regard, which, it is but just to say, was re-
quited, not only by unlimited devotion, but, since his death, by a pious care for
the memory of the distinguished savant.t
At the beginning of the year 1850, M. de Blainville thought it his duty, not-
withstanding the alteration of his health, to open his course at the Faculty of
sciences. In his first lectures, he reappeared with a talent which had lost
nothing of its force or brilliancy. Impelled, however, by sad presentiments, he
quitted, on the Ist of May, his modest habitation at the Museum, promising a
speedy return. He was but going, he said, to breathe his native air, and see
the sun of spring once more shine on the fair coasts of Normandy.{
His purpose was not fulfilled. Searcely had he taken his place in the vehicle
which was to convey him, when, by a sudden stroke, this noble existence was
terminated, On the public authority it devolved to extend that protection to
his last moments which it owes to the humblest citizen, and to restore to his
friends and colleagues the mortal remains of one so worthy of respect, one by
whom the nothingness of life had never been forgotten.
* T scarcely need say that M. de Blainville belonged to most of the learned societies of
the world, and of course to the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Legion
ef Honor, and if he remained a simple chevalier it was only because he preferred it.
t All the manuscripts of the great naturalist were scrupulously collected by his young
friend M. Nicard, who prepared, also, a notice breathing a spirit of enthusiastic veneration.
¢ This love of his native place was one of the prominent features of his character, as
was also the love of his family. The son and daughter of his elder brother were long ‘the
only ties of kindredship which remained to him.
REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL STORY OF GENEVA,
FROM JULY, 1863, TO JUNE, 1864.
BY DR. CHOSSAT, PRESIDENT.
TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
SSS ee
In conformity with article 7 of our laws, I am about to present to the society
an account of its transactions and its progress during the year in which I have
had the honor of being called to preside over it. The society, I regret to say,
publishes no special bulletin of its sittings; the annual report of the president,
at the close of his official term, is intended to supply its place. This, however,
it can only do imperfectly, because, from the necessarily tardy date of its pub-
lication, some of the results communicated must have partially lost the character
of finality. However this may be, the greater portion of the labors of the year
have been successively inserted either in the present volume of memoirs, or in
the archives of the physical and natural sciences of the Bubliothéque Universelle ;
so that my task to-day will be limited to a concise recapitulation of those labors.
Since the end of September last, the society has been deprived of the special
collaboration of our excellent colleague, Professor Claparéde, whose infirm health
has obliged him to withdraw from the functions of secretary of our sittings—
functions which for many years he discharged in so distinguished a manner.
His place has been filled, provisionally at first, by MM. Alexander Prevost and
de Loriol; and definitively since, by M. Alexander Prevost alone, whom you
designated for this office 21st January last. Such has been the obligingness of
these gentlemen, and so clear and detailed their report of the current proceed-
ings of the society, that the execution, always more or less difficult, of my
present duty has been facilitated to the utmost possible degree; and I shall be
permitted, I am sure, to present to them, as well in the name of the society as
my own, the most sincere acknowledgments.
Agreeably to the usage adopted in former reports, the present account will be
divided into two principal parts: that of the physical and that of the natural
sciences ; parts which will be then subdivided into as many special sections as
the nature of the communications made to the society may prescribe. In each
of these sections we shall speak, first, of the original memoirs which have been
read; and next, say something of the verbal reports which have been made to
the society during the year. We commence with astronomy.
PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
AstTronomMY—Memoirs.—M. Emile Gautier read two memoirs on the consti-
tution of the sun. With M. Kirchhoff, he regards this body as a globe in fusion,
190 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
- incandescent, and surrounded with a vast atmosphere; he conceives that this
atmosphere, constituted chiefly of thick and metallic vapors, must be incom-
parably more dense than the terrestrial atmosphere, and he attributes to it the
protuberances and roseate border observed in total eclipses, as well as the dap-
pled appearance of the surface of the sun. But he denies to it the action
attributed by M. Kirchhoff in the production of the solar spots.
As regards these spots, M. Gautier considers them to be connected with oxy-
dations, with masses of salts and scorix, with solidifications, in a word, which
are temporarily formed on the surface of the sun; and this, under the influence
of exterior refrigeration or interior chemical action, in much the same manner as
is observed in great masses of metals in fusion, in our industrial operations. The
author admits the results of M. Speerer and those of M. Carrington regarding
the apparent differences in the duration of the rotation of the sun, according to
the heliographic latitude of such of the spots as are adopted for the calculation
of this rotation. And in reference to the acceleration in longitude of the points
of the equatorial zone, he considers it, with our colleague M. Cellerier, as re-
sulting from the’action exerted upon the solidified masses floating on the surface
of the sun, whether by the friction of the heavy and metallic atmosphere of that
orb, or by the interior rotary movement of the strata of its mass infusion. These
two components being both a function of the velocity and of the cosine of the
latitude, (though this cosine has a different power for each of the two compo-
nents,) they vary with each parallel, and their resultant may supply the reason
of the acceleration in question. For the rest, although the ‘author does not con-
‘sider the mean density of the sun to be inferior to that of water, yet he admits
that its low degree of density might form a serious objection to his theory of the
spots, an objection which will be met on his part by a deliberate and thorough
examination.
Professor Pluntamour read us an extract from a very interesting memoir on
the horary and telegraphic operations, by means of which the longitude of the
observatory of Neuchatel has been connected with that of the observatory of
Geneva. These operations have led to some new results on the employment of
the telegraph in determinations of this nature. But, as the paper of M. Planta-
mour appears in the present volume of the collection of our memoirs, we confine
ourselves to a simple mention of it. The same physicist presented a note on the
rectifications to be applied to the general system of levelling for Switzerland,
and on the choice to be made, as a point of departure above the sea, between the
mean level of the Mediterranean at Marseilles and the mean level of the ocean,
as the latter results from very exact measurements executed in nineteen of the
principal ports of France between Bayonne and Dunkirk. M. Plantamour would
prefer the level of the ocean, the mean of which is 0.80 higher than the mean
level of the Mediterranean at Marseilles.
Verbal reports.—Professor Alfred Gautier presented statements, full of in-
terest, on several astronomical labors executed in different observatories of
Europe and America. These statements bore more particularly, firstly, on the
spots of the sun, their reciprocal occultation observed at Altona, and their pre-
sumed connexion with the aurora borealis and magnetic variations ; likewise, on
the two periods, one of eleven and the other of fifty-six years, recognized by M.
Wolf in the number of these spots; secondly, on the photometric researches of
M. Alvan Clarke, relative to the intensity of the light of the sun compared with
that of the fixed stars ; whence it would result that our sun cannot be one of the
brilliant stars of the heavens; thirdly, on a slight augmentation to be applied to
the value of the parallax of Mars as hitherto recognized, an augmentation which
would imply that our distance from the sun is a little less than that at present
admitted ; fourthly, on the observation of shooting-stars by P. Seechi, from
which it results that these meteors are situated at a height of 100 to 150 kilome-
tres, and hence that they are within the limits of our atmosphere; fifthly, on
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. LOT
the lines of the solar spectrum, which, at an elevation of four miles above the
ground, remain identical with those on the surface of the earth, only the spectrum
diminishes in extent in proportion to the elevation attained; sixthly, on the dis-
covery of a satellite of Procyon; on the light of 7 of the Ship, which, in the
space of twenty years, has passed from the first to the sixth magnitude; and
finally, on a deviation of 10’ of the plumb-line in the environs of Moscow, at a
distance from any description of mountain.
MerTEeoroLoGy.—Memoirs.—The great and valuable labors of our future
president, Professor Plantamour, on the climate of Geneva, pertain by peculiar
right to our society, and would have occupied a distinguished place in the col-
lection of our memoirs, if their extent had not compelled the author to have them
printed and published separately. This work, one of true scientific importance,
inasmuch as it is based on observations executed with improved instruments,
and repeated every day and several hours of each day for thirty-five consecutive
years, and finally discussed with all the resources of modern science, could not
be analyzed in a report necessarily so much circumscribed as the present;
besides that, it would now be the more useless to attempt such analysis, since
Professor Aug. de la Rive has recently given, in the archives of the physics and
natural sciences of the Bibliothéque Universelle, a detailed and highly interesting
account of the enterprise.
Verbal reports—Professor Plantamour communicated some of the results
obtained during the month of January last, at the meteorological stations of the
valley of the higher Rhone. _ Some singular anomalies of temperature have there
been realized. Thus, among others, it was found that it was colder at the vil-
lage of Rechingen (valley of Conches) than at the hospice of Saint Bernard,
though the latter is situated 1,140 metres higher than the village. « These anom-
alies may be explained sometimes by the presence or absence of the sun, and
sometimes also by the cold air flowing from the mountains anv. accumulating
gradually in the bosom of the narrow valleys. Professor Marcet informed us of
the results of M. Glaisher on the diminution of the temperature of the air in pro-
portion to the elevation attained—results gathered in England and by means of
balloon ascensions. The diminution is not regular, most probably from cireumstan-
ces purely accidental, such as momentary currents of cold air, or enormous strata of
vapor, which arrest the solar heat and reflect it toward the higher spaces. After
traversing cold mists of some thousands of feet in thickness, M. Glaisher found at
11 or 12,000 feet of elevation the same temperature as at the surface of the earth.
Professor Wartmann reports, in relation to atmospheric electricity on high
mountains, that it had been observed this year in an ascension of the Jungfrau,
as had been done the year before on the Diablerets, that at the approach of a
storm the ironed staves of the tourists commenced ixtonating, and that singular
sounds were heard in the air. Professor Gautier spoke of torrents of rain hav-
ing fallen in Italy, in February last, accompanied, at Rome, by a furious hurri-
cane, which transported thither sand entirely similar to that ‘of the desert of
Sahara. Professor Marceet remarked upon the relatively very mild temperature
of the winter of 1863-64, in Canada, a fact which navigators believe they ac-
count for by a change observeds as they suppose, in the direction of the Gulf
Stream. M. Chaix read to us a report on the results of late travels in Arabia,
and particularly those of Palgrave, who succeeded in traversing the country by
passing for a Syrian.
MATHEMATICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL Puysics.—Memoirs.—M. Ch. Galopin
‘read an extract of a memoir on the mathematical theory of double refraction.
After reciting the principles on which rests the theory of Fresnel, and having
indicated the process followed by that eminent physicist for applying analysis
to transcendental researches, our colleague adopts as his own the views of Cau-
chy, who regards the movement of light as a particular case of the movement of
a system of molecules, very slightly diverted trom their position or equilibrium,
192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
and solicited by mutnal forces of attraction and repulsion; and he gives the dif-
ferential equations, whose integration would furnish the value of the molecular
displacements. By a method peculiar to himself, M. Galopin, with the help of
certain artifices of analysis, arrives at the equation of the velocities of luminous
waves already given by Fresnel, an equation which may be regarded as repre-
senting a surface called that of elasticity, and from which he deduces the equation
of the surface itself of these waves. Besides the two surfaces in question, there
still exist six others, the study of which enables him to arrive rapidly at the
properties of the surface of the waves, at those which concern the peculiar points
and planes of that surface, the conic and cylindrical refractions, and finally the
ordinary and extraordinary rays of crystals of two axes.
M. Lucien de la Rive has made researches on the differences of density of a
gaseous mass revolving around an axis in a cylindrical vessel, and has arrived
at a formula which enables him to calculate these different densities. The dif-
ferences in question are little appreciable for volumes of gas and dimensions of
vessels of inconsiderable quantity ; but they increase in proportion as the diame-
ter of the vessels is larger. The last named physicist read a memoir on the
conducetibility of ice for heat. After having given the detail of his experiments,
he recapitulates them mathematically, and proceeds to deduce to the value of
the co-eflicient %, of the conductibility of ice, a co-efficient which he finds =0.25,
that of glass being 0.13, and that of porcelain 0.24. Then applying his results
to the formation of ice on a surface of water below 0°, he seeks for the law
according to which this formation takes place, and he arrives at three equations
corresponding to three different epochs of the formation in question. Now, as
the last of these equations is that of a parabola, he thence deduces that after the
lapse of quite a few days of frost, the ice can only increase very slowly. The
author finally establishes the agreement of his theory with known facts, with
the observations of Flauguergues particularly, and concludes by indicating
briefly the application which may be made of it to the formation of the polar
ices.
Verbal reports.—Professors Wartmann and Marcet, in several successive verbal
communications, brought to the notice of the society the interesting discussion
in progress between MM. Magnus and Tyndall, on the absorption of heat by
gases. M. Tyndall, in repeating his experiments without employing the dia-
phragm of rock-salt, has removed one of the most serious objections of M. Mag-
nus. From his results he derives consequences of importance for the theory of
Wells on dew, and for other atmospheric phenomena. Professor Marcet made
the additional remark that Dulong, in his investigation regarding the specific
heat of gases, had set out with the hypothesis that gases do not radiate; now,
since M. Tyndall has established that they do radiate, the results of Dulong
would seem to call for revision, account being taken of the radiation. Professor
Plantamour occupied our attention with the views of M. Hipp respecting the
establishment of electric clocks in cities. Their employment at Geneva has
greatly conduced to a determination of the conditions by which their disposal
should be governed. Their position in gas-lanterns exposes them to great vari-
ations of temperature from summer to winter, to the unfavorable influences of dust
and humidity, and to the disturbing effects of the discharges of atmospheric
electricity and of concussions produced, whether by gusts of wind or the fre-
quent washing of the lanterns—concussions which have sometimes caused tem-
porary loss of the current. By reason of these difficulties, M. Hipp would prefer
that such clocks should be placed in the wall of the fronts of houses rather than
in the gas-lanterns. M. Philip Plantamour presented an analysis of the re-
searches of M. Edliing on the formation of ice in the northern seas. According
to the latter, the sea begins to freeze from the bottom; the water being there
cooled below the point of congelation, the least shock, the passage of a fish for
instance, suffices to determine solidification and to produce the sudden formation
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 193
of masses of ice more or less considerable, which rise and float on the surface of
the water. The analysis of M. Plantamour has been inserted in the Archives
of the Bibliothéque Universelle.
Cuemistry.—Memoirs.—Professor Marignac communicated to the society the
continuation of his researches on the silico-tungstates. He has recognized three
distinct acids formed by the combination of tungstic acid and silicic acid, namely :
1st. Silico-tungstie acid, containing 12 equivalents of tungstic acid for 1 of silicic
acid; 2d. Silico-decitungstic acid, 10 equivalents of tungstie acid for 1 of silicic
acid; 3d. Tungsto-silicie acid, which has the same composition as the first, but
which differs by its crystalline form. He remarks that a great number of salts
of these acids present crystalline forms almost identical, although not by any
means so in their composition. This fact seems to him to indicate the necessity
of admitting the following extension of Mitscherlich’s principle of isomorphism,
viz: that two compounds including an element or a group of common elements,
which constitutes by much the greater part of their weight, may be tsomorphous,
even when the elements in which they differ do not constitute by themselves an
isomorphous group. M. Delafontaine read a memoir on the atomic weight of
thorine or thorium. He has repeated the analysis of the sulphate of thorium
after the method of Berzelius. ‘The mean of several accordant results yielded
him for the equivalent of thorine the figure 823.3, and admitting that the form-
ula of this is 7/0”, the weight of its atom referred to oxygen would be 1,646.6,
and that of thorium 1,446.6. ‘lo the same author we owe a note on the place
which thallium should occupy among the elements. Several chemists place it
among the alkaline metals, while others consider it as being related to lead. Of
these two views our colleague adopts the former.
Verbal reports —M. Clusius has modified his theory on the atomic composi-
tion of ozone. It is not this body, it would seem, but oxygen which is formed
of atoms grouped two and two—atoms which are dissociated when oxygen passes
into the state of ozone. But it is objected to this new theory that ozone having
more density than oxygen, it is the former, not oxygen, which must be com-
posed of grouped atoms.
NATURAL SCIENCES,
GroLoey.— Memoirs.—M. Favre has continued his communications on the
geological constitution of the Chablais. The soil of this province is composed
of new formations superposed in the following order: the glacial, fucoid schists,
kimmeridgian l.mestone, collovian limestone, liasian, lower lias, triassic, coal, and
serpentine. One of the characters of the region is the absence of cretaceous
and nummulitic formations ; an absence which results probably from the soil in
question having been already elevated above the surface of the water at the
epoch of the cretaceous and nummulitic seas. The author afterwards presents
a geological description of that part of Savoy traversed by the valleys of Meé-
geve and of Haut-Luce. Among other formations he there recognizes the black
slates of the jurassic period, forming the crest of Mont Joli; a fine deposit of
vegetable fossils of the carboniferous era, near Bonhomme; and near Beaufort
deposits of anthracite. He also shows that the granitic group of Mont Blanc is
separated from that of Beaufort by sedimentary rocks, a continuation of those
of the valley of Chamounix, and thus the granite of Beaufort would seem to be
a prolongation of that of Valorsina.
M. Favre also gave an account of an investigation in which he is engaged of
the deposits of translation between Jura and the Alps. These deposits present
four principal stages: 1st, the present alluvium; 2d, the alluvium of the ter-
races, deposited by great currents of water above the glacial formation, and ata
maximum elevation of 30 to 33 metres above the lake; 3d, the glacial deposit,
composed of loam, of rolled pebbles, and of some erratic blocks; 4th, the old
13 s
.
194 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
alluvium, composed of facilites (pudding-stone) and of rolled pebbles. Among
these, the euphotide, found below Geneva, comes from the mountains of the
Valais, a considerable distance doubtless, and the translation of which, by
reason of the interposition of the lake, it is not easy to explain.
M. Loriol read to us a memoir on the nummulitic formation of Egypt. To
eight species of echinoderms already known in the nummulitic of that country
he adds four others entirely new. He also communicated a series of researches
on the classic mountain of Saléve. . The fauna of the coralline stratum which
forms the base of that mountain has furnished some new fossils, among others
a large species of Diceras. The deposits between the corralline and the middle
neocomian belong to the valengian stratum, as their fossils (Natica leviathan)
testify. ‘The Urgonian stratum offers three species of invertebrata in common
with the deposits of Orgon, without speaking of several new species, and in par-
ticular of a fine terebratula (7. Edrodunensis,) which has not yet been pub-
Jished, and which has been compounded with the T. semistriata. Finally, in
this Valengian stratum, M. Loriol has distinguished four new species of
brachiopods.
Verbal reports.—Professor A. de la Rive called the attention of the society
to the researches of M. Frankland on the physical cause of the glacial epoch.
This cause he finds in the generally admitted fact, that the ocean must, at the
precipitated epoch, have had a temperature much superior to that which it now
has; that hence the evaporation of the seas would have been considerably aug-
mented, and with it the aqueous precipitations of the atmosphere. Now, these
enormous precipitations, falling in the form of snow, and during millenary pe-
riods, on the elevated table-lands of the high latitudes of the globe, would
eventually oceasion the vast accumulations of ice which characterized the epoch
in question. In support of this theory, M. de la Rive added, that since 1815
he had observed the great extension which the glaciers of Switzerland had ac-
quired after the two rainy years of 1816 and 1817. Further, that other savants
had already announced ideas upon the glacial epoch in close analogy with those
of M. Frankland. This communication of Professor de la Rive has been
inserted in the Bibliotheque Universelle.
Professor Desor communicated some of the results of his late researches on
the lacustrian deposits of lake Neuchatel. He has studied two stations at Au-
vergnier; one of the age of stone, situated near the shore, at a depression of
about five feet below the mean level of the water; the other of the age of
bronze, which is found somewhat in front of the other and at a greater depth.
He supposes that the stations of the age of stone are the remains of artificial
islands formed of pebbles heaped around stakes planted in the bottom of the
lake.
M. de Heer announces the discovery of the wing of an insect of the genus
blatina in the anthracites of the Valais, near St. Maurice. ‘his inseet, found
under fossil plants of the epoch of coal, is a near neighbor of those of the coal
series. Professor Pictet has continued to give us information both of the facts
relative to the discovery of the jawbone of Moulin-Quignon and of the different
scientific inquiries which bear upon that discovery. ‘These inquiries have been
successively published in the scientific and literary journals of the epoch; and
as they are too numerous for us to give here even a simple enumeration of them,
we must be content with a reference to the journals themselves. ‘The last-named
naturalist spoke also of the discovery of a tooth of a gigantic crocodilian in
the oolite of Poitiers; according to the savants who have examined it, this
animal appears to have been about one hundred feet in length. Finally, M.
Alexandre Prevost, our secretary, showed us a fragment of a human skull,
found in the valley of Chamounix, immediately above the Aiguilles by which
the glacier of Bossons terminates in that valley. This fragment is doubtless
a relic of one of the three guides who perished on the great plateau during the
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 195
expedition of Dr. Hummel in 1820. Other bones, of the same origin, have
been found last spring and still more recently in the same localities.
Borany.—Memoirs—Dr. Muller read a memorandum of the monstrosities
which he had met with in the flower and fruit of the jatropha pobliana, and
deduced therefrom some conclusions on the theory of the anther. He thinks
that this is formed neither by the combination of two ordinary leaves, nor by a
leaf whose edges are incurvated towards the median rib so as to form the two
chambers of the pollen. He believes that the anther represents only a simple
leaf, and that the pollen is developed in the incrassated tissue of the paren-
chyma of this leaf. The anthers heretofore recognized are of 1, 2, 4, and 8
chambers, and according to the commonly received theory, the existence of
trilocular anthers would be an impossibility. Now, in confirmation of his own
theory of the antherian leaf, M. Muller read a note on the existence of trilo-
cular anthers in the species pachystema of the family of the euphorbiaee,
(Java). ‘he same colleague aftcrwards presented a notice of two modes of
inflection of the stamens in the euphorbiaceze. The only one of these two:
modes which is noteworthy is that in which the anther is inflected in the bud,
its summit below and its base above. This form of inflection is important,
inasmuch as it serves to characterize the great tribe of the crotonez.
Verbal reports.—Professor de Candolle, in his Botanic Geography, has re-
marked that the beech and chestnut have not been discovered in Algeria. Now,
Professor Martius has recently found chestnut trees in the forest of l’Edding, in
the neighborhood of a Roman aqueduct. M.de Candolle conceives that in such
a locality the chestnut may well have been introduced by the Romans, and he
persists in thinking that the tree in question does not exist in the Atlas. He
also noticed a memoir of Dr. Hooker on the arctic flora, a memoir in which that
savant secks to explain why certain regions of the north possess a very rich.
flora, (Lapland,) while others have an extremely poor one, (Greenland.) M.
Hooker thinks that after the glacial epoch the vegetable species, in proportion.
as the ice withdrew, would ascend into the arctic regions, when those regions
were continental, while in the regions which became insular the sea would op-.
pose the reascension of vegetables. The same naturalist presented the society
with grains of the indigenous coffee of Peru; these grains are more voluminous.
than those of the coftce of Asia, but it is not yet possible to determine their
species. He exhibited also the male flower of a begoniacean of Africa, very
different from the usual type of its family, for which he had been indebted to.
the kindness of Dr. Hooker. Lastly, M. Reuter presented to the society the
leaf, fruit, and part of the flower of the tormelia fragrans, which is the first:
time that the fruit of this aroid of Mexico has been seen at Geneva.
ZooLoGy— Memoirs —M. Henri de Saussure read a paper on the incessant:
dispersion of the hymenoptera on the surface of the globe, a dispersion which.
would have for its apparent consequence a successive modification of individuals, .
and consequently the development of series of graduated species, marking the
stages traversed by the migrations of each type. This hypothesis would ex--
plain the parallel series which may be observed on the same continent or on
different continents. Among these successive modifications, one of the most
interesting is that which pertains only to one of the two sexes, the feminine.
In the genus Elis, for instance, we can distinguish as many as twenty varie-
ties, spread over all the continents, varieties extremely distinct from one another
in regard to the female, but of which the males seem identical or nearly. so,
which would constitute a series of types successively polygamous. he author
concludes by indicating certain species which may have passed from Europe te
America, and from America into Africa or Europe. M. Alois Humbert read a
memoir, in which he showed, by means of mollusks which he had brought from
Ceylon, that in the pulmonate gastropods there exists no essential difference
between those with an external and those with an internal shell, and that it is
196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
possible to establish all the requisite transitions between the two extremes of
this family, extremes which may be represented by the slug, (internal shell,)
and the snail, (external shell.) M. Victor Fatio communicated a memoir on the
vertical distribution of species in certain families of birds. Leaving the basin
of Lake Leman with twenty-four different species of sylviade, he loses some
one of these species in proportion as he ascends the mountains; and when
arrived at the Haute-Engadine finds himself accompanied only by redstarts, one
of which alone, the ruticilla tithys, ascends still higher. In this comparative
study, the author first establishes an approximation between the north pole and
our higher Alps, which leads him to signalize the relations which exist, for birds,
between their horizontal passages and vertical migrations. Next, passing to
this transport of species to heights more and more considerable, he recognizes
the influence which climate and the nature of the soil exercise on the produc-
tion of nourishment.
Verbal reports —M. V. Fatio took notice of the appearance at Geneva of a
bird, the syoraptes paradoxus, which inhabits Siberia, Tartary, and China, and
which entered Europe in 1863, directing its course from the northeast of Ger-
many to the southwest of France. An extraordinary drought in its native
country has probably been the cause of this unusual migration of the bird in
question.
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOG one —Professor Thury communicated his
important memoir on the law of the production of sexes. In the case of plants,
the fundamental identity of the pistils and stamens is admitted by those
‘botanists who regard the organs in question as modified leaves. Now, accord-
ing to the experiments of Knight, heat favoring the production of male flowers
in dicecious plants, M. Thury. has thence concluded that the caloric acted on
plants by occasioning a more complete elaboration and maturation of the juices
and organs, so that the production of the male element would correspond with
a more perfect development of the germ. Applying these ideas to the animal
kingdom, our colleague has deduced from them the consequence, that the pro-
duction of one or the other sex depends only on the degree of maturation of
the egg, a maturation which would continue to advance during the time which
elapses between the moment of the detachment of the ovum and that of its
impregnation, in such manner that the ova promptly fecundated would yield
females, and those more slowly fecundated males. Such is the filiation of ideas
by which M. Thury has arrived at the theory to which his name will remain
attached ; a theory which was confirmed by experiment in each of the twenty-
nine cases in which, at the instance of its author, trial was made by M. Cornay.
Yhese ideas of our colleague have excited very general interest; they were
immediately submitted to investigation in France, in England, and in Germany,
and this on so large a scale that we may hope to arrive promptly at results
altogether decisive. Certain objections, however, have been raised against this
theory, of which we shall here notice only such as have been advanced at our
own sittings. Thus, for instance, in regard to hemp, which grows in very
different climates, it has been said that nothing has heretofore indicated that
more male individuals are produced in the hemp of warm countries than in that
of cold ones. Again, M. Pagenstecher has sought to demonstrate that the
theory of M. 'Thury was in opposition with observations on the parthenogenesis,
and he substitutes for it another theory, in which account is equally taken of
the age of the egg at the moment of its fecundation. In effect, at the session
of the Helvetic society of natural sciences in 1863, he expressed the idea that,
by maturation, the pellicle of the ovule became hardened, which might prevent
a more or less considerable number of zoospermes from penetrating into the in-
terior of the egg, and thus influencing its sexuality. Some of these objections,
it must be confessed, rest only upon hypotheses and need demonstration in
order to obtain assent.
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 19%
Professor Claparéde read a memoir on the circulation of the blood in
arachnidx of the genus lycosa. ‘The examination of this circulation conducts
the author to a very unexpected result: that in these animals the blood, in
almost the whole of the heart, moves from front to rear, contrary to what takes
place in all the arthropods hitherto studied. The memoir of M. Claparéde hav-
ing been published in the previous volume of our collection dispenses with the
necessity of entering into the further details of this interesting investigation,
which, besides, it would be difficult to understand without plates. The same
naturalist presented another memoir in which he sets forth the result of his in-
teresting researches made at Port Vendres, during the summer of 1863, on the
anatomy and classification of marine annelide. He first occupies himself with
a type which has not been studied heretofore except in a manner probably very
imperfect, that of the polyophthalme, which forms among the chetopods an in-
termediate link between the oligochetz and the polychetaw. He next examines
the annelidz, degraded from the family of the terebellacx, in which the disap-
pearance of the vascular system is accompanied by the formation in the general
cavtiy of the animal, of a liquid holding in suspension red globules, very similar
to the corpuscles of the blood of mammifers, and thrown into continual move-
ment to and fro by the contractions of the walls of the body. Lastly, he passes
to the examination of the family of syllid, of which the species present some
the normal and others the alternating generation. Among more than twenty
species pertaining to this family, and found by him at Port Vendres, one species
only was already known. ‘This memoir, accompanied with plates, is inserted
in the present volume of memoirs of the society.
M. Victor Fatio read a memoir on the reproductive male apparatus of the ac-
centor alpinus, one of the pretty sparrows of our Alps. In the spring, at the
approach cf rutting time, its testicles acquire an enormous development, attain-
ing a volume of about one-third of that of the entire trunk. Their different
vessels, instead of opening directly into the cloaca, are wound upon themselves,
and form on the sides of the anus two large balls which hang beneath the tail
in pouches covered by the skin. On issuing from these balls, the vessels in
question are directed towards the common vestibule, and terminate at the ex-
tremity of a small sexual papilla. In autumn all this temporary development
disappears. Doctor Dor read a memoir on the physiological effects of the bean
of Calabar, (physostigma venenosa.) Studied specially in its effects on the
eye, this substance produces contraction of the pupil, and occasions a sort of
cramp of the accommodator muscle. In this double relation it acts as an anta-
gonist of the atropima. Professor Valentin presented a note on the stretching
of the motor nerves. This stretching, by producing elongation of the fibrillous
sheath of Schwan, must narrow the diameter, and thus occasion, probably, a
certain degree of compression of the nervous pulp which it envelopes* M.
Valentin has sought to measure the effects of the stretching in question, and
that by help of a measuring apparatus at once rotary and graphic, and of a
slight current of induction, as a means of excitation of the nerves examined.
The same physiologist made a communication on the effects of the separation
of the motor nerves from the vervous centres. He has ascertained: Ist, that
a discontinuity of one demi-millimetre suffices to produce all the effects resulting
from the separation in question, which excludes the idea that the nervous force
ean act at a distance, as in induction; 2d, that when the two separated ends
of the nerve are examined with the microscope, it is found that the peripheric
portion presents only degenerated fibres, while the end attached to the nervous
centres is composed only of fibres perfectly normal. For the great sympathetic
the effects are different, on account of the anastomoses of the peripherie end.
*We say probably, because if the elongation of the nervous substance is proportional to
that of the sheath which envelops it, there will not be compression, but a stretching only of
the nervous pulp enveloped.
198 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
Verbal reports—There have been some interesting communications to the
society, on physiological researches conducted by foreign savants, namely: By
Professor de la Rive, on the experiments of M. Scouttetten relative to the elas-
ticity of the blood, and to the current which, through the galvanometer, passes
from the arterial to the venous blood; and this as well in the living animal as
in the blood freshly drawn from the vessels. By Professor Claparéde, on the
process of M. Wandt for measuring the rapidity with which thought may be
transferred from an impression of the setse of hearing to an impression of the
sense of sight, (about ¢ of a second.) The personal equation of the observer
ought, evidently, to be here taken into consideration. On the animal grafts of
Dr. Best; besides the subcutaneous grafts of different members effected with
success, this physiologist, in the case of two animals of the same species, bué
of different sex, has succeeded in engrafting the genital organs of one into the
abdominal cavity of the other. He has also united two rats by the skin of the
lateral part of the body, and has thus succeeded in establishing between them
a complete vascular communication. Although these graftings have succeeded
between animals of the same species, they have failed between those of dif-
erent species. Again—and with this I shall end—Professor Claparéde de-
tailed to us the last results at which, each for himself, MM. Knoch, in Russia,
Leuckart, in Germany, aud the late Bertholus, in France, have arrived in their
valuable researches on the evolution of the bothryocephalus. In this worm, com-
mon enough in Russia, Poland, the south of France and Geneva, the eggs are
developed in water, and at the end of seven months give birth to embryos fur-
nished with remarkably long cilia. These embryos continue to live freely in the
water, and there produce a larvee armed with hooks very similar to that of the
teenias. Now, what still remains to be discovered is, whether it is sufficient to
swallow water containing the larve of the bothryocephalus in order to introduce
this worm into the human body; or whether, as with other teenias, the passage
through an intermediate animal is necessary for effecting its ultimate evolution.
The question being reduced to this degree of simplicity, its solution may be
easily attempted, and we may hope will be attained before the lapse of any long
interval.
Such is the analysis, complete enough, I think, but still summary and dry,
of the different labors which have occupied us during the year with which my
official term closes. It remains to say a few words on—
THE PERSONNEL AND PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY.—I had hoped, till quite a
recent period, to have been enabled, notwithstanding the somewhat precarious
state of the public health during the year 1863, to felicitate you that no vacancy
had occurred in the ranks of our society; but those anticipated felicitations
have been changed into sincere regrets by the death of M. Wartmann, senior,
at the age of 71 years. Louis Frangois Wartmann was born at Geneva, Jan-
uary 6, 1793; and was, from the first, destined by his father, who knew how to
give in his own person an example of perseverance and the love of labor, to that
hardy education which the difficult circumstances of the epoch demanded. Of
a ready intelligence and happy aptitude for the serious occupations of the mind,
it was the physical sciences towards which he felt most strongly attracted, and
the study of which, under such men as Schaub, Gasp. de la Rive, M. A. Pictet,
Maurice, and Gautier, definitely decided the course of his life. Endowed with
an easy and agreeable elocution, and knowing how to place himself on a level
with intellects of every degree, he devoted himself more particularly to instruc-
tion, and, for half a century, attained in that line well-merited success. Thus
occupying a position in which he could clearly recognize the wants of our pop-
ulation, he soon perceived that our classical college answered but imperfectly
the educational requirements of a part of our youth, and, associating himself
with a few capable and devoted colleagues, he opened, July, 1831, an industrial
school, which continued in successful operation till 1838, when its functions were
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 199
superseded by the establishment of the present industrial and commercial col-
lege by the government.
Astronomy was, with M. Wartmann, always the science of predilection. He
discovered, September 6, 1831, in all probability, one of the small telescopic
planets of our system; but the complete discovery eluded him through a defi-
ciency, at that epoch, of instruments of precision, and the consequent impossi-
bility of determining the elements of the orbit. More recently he drew up charts
of the trajectories of the comets of Halley, Enke, and Biela, and constructed, on
a new plan, two large planispheres, which comprised, to the number of 2,800,
all the stars from the first to the sixth magnitude, visible in Europe at a mean
latitude of 45° to 47°, and calculated for the Ist of January, 1850. His atten-
tion was also directed to the shooting stars, and he published, (Corresp. Mathem.
and Phys. of Quetelet, vol. xl,) on those which he had observed in the night of
10th to 11th of August, 1838, a memoir, accompanied by a chart, in which he
traced the trajectories of 372 of these mysterious meteors. Having become a
member of our society in 1832, he acted as its treasurer from 1834 to 1858.
Besides his own researches in astronomy and meteorology, he often communi-
cated to us extracts from his correspondence with foreign astronomers. His
scientific labors will be found dispersed in the Brbliothéque Universelle, the
Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, the Bulletins of the Acad-
emy of Brussels, and in certain other foreign scientific collections. But this brief
notice would still be imperfect, did I not cite the admirable qualities of heart and
temper of our deceased colleague—qualities which endeared him to all, and
which will dispose us long to recall his courteous and prepossessing presence.
Let us not forget also to commemorate the punctual observance with which it
was his habit to attend each of our meetings, and to express the hope that this
example of persistent assiduity may not be lost upon any of us.
I will not conclude this report without adding that the progress of the society
has been satisfactory, as in the past. In effect, during the whole year, the num-
ber of memoirs, notes and verbal reports which have been read or presented to
us, shows that the scientific impulse has suffered no abatement among us. Our
sittings have been replete with interest, of which your zealous attendance, as
witnessed by our records, is the surest exponent ; and in each of our reunions
the most agreeable forms of mutual kindliness and simplicity have never for a
moment ceased to predominate. If to these considerations we add the steady
augmentation of our resident membership, an augmentation which is for us the
proof of the increasing interest which our society excites in the enlightened
part of our population, you will be justified in concluding that our position is
firm, our advance well sustained, and that we need only desire to see this
favorable state of things maintained in the future. But for that, gentlemen, it
must not be forgotten that youth imposes obligation ; for it is the hour of genius
and the age of great labors. Such is the reflection which an old colleague
thinks it not unsuitable to present to you at the close of what he has been
called upon to say touching the progress and prospects of the society.
REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA,
FROM JULY, 1864, TO JUNE, 1865.
BY M. -E.."PLANTAMOUR; PRESIDENT.
TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
According to established usage, I proceed, on quitting the presidency, to sub-
mit a report of our transactions during the year which has just elapsed. ‘The
statement which I shall read is an abridged reproduction of the proceedings of
our meetings, though the chronological order has been changed for the purpose
of classifying the different communications according to the subject to which
they relate. In this classification I conform to the customary division between
the physical and natural sciences, although the line of demarcation between
these two branches of human knowledge is far from being distinctly drawn; in
not a few cases, in fact, it is somewhat difficult to decide under which of the
two categories certain researches, relating to physiology or geology, ought to be
ranged.
PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
M. Galopin presented the result of some theoretical researches which he had
made on the resistance opposed by fluids to the movement of solid bodies. He
has been occupied especially with the effect which would be produced by differ-
ent solids of revolution moving in the direction of their axis, and he concludes
that bodies operate differently, according to their form, in modifying the density
of the fluid ——— M. Achard communicated to the society a memoir, (B7d/io-
theque Universelle, Archives des Sciences Phys. et Nat., vol. xxii,) directed to
the study of the second principle of the mechanical theory of heat, discussing
therein the researches of Rankine and Clusius on this subject. He also madea
report on an improvement applied by M. Foucault to the regulator with centri-
fugal foree——— M. Lucien de la Rive read a note on an application of the
ealculation"of probabilities. He proposes to determine the functions of time ex-
pressing the probability of the recurrence of an event a certain number of times
within a given period—— General Morin, being present at one of the meet-
ings, made a communication on his studies relating to ventilation, and on the
results obtained by the processes of ventilation established in the amphitheatres
of the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, and in some of the hospitals of Paris.
Professor Gautier has continued to keep the society apprised of the researches
of foreign astronomers, particularly of the discussions which are taking place in
England on the constitution of the surface of the sun, on the nature of the
spots, and on the appearances, likened by some to grains of rice, by others to
leaves of the willow. At different sittings he analyzed the investigations of M.
Wolf on the spots of the sun; of M. Webb on the changes which are effected
at the surface of the moon; of M. Quetelet on the proper movement of the stars ;
of M. Auwers on the orbit of Sirius. He gave an account, also, of the geodesic
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 201
operation undertaken by a Swedish expedition for the measurement of an are of
a degree of the meridian at Spitsbergen in the latitude of 789, and of different
inquiries into the spectral lines of the light of planets, stars, and nebule. He
further exhibited to the society specimens of autographie telegraph despatches.
some of which were accompanied with drawings obtained by the system Caselli
established between Paris and Lyons——— M. HE. Gautier presented a com-
munication on the researches of M. Howlet, relative to the constitution of the
sun, and submitted to the society photographs of the sun obtained in different
English observatories. ‘These representations show the spots and fecule with
remarkable distinctness. The same associate, after his return from Rome, where
Father Secchi had, with much kindness, placed the great refractor of the Roman
college at his disposal, gave us an account of the observations which he made
on the appearance of the surface of the sun, and of his researches on the physi-
cal constitution of that orb.
- M. Plantamour presented the result of experiments which he had made with
a pendulum of inversion, in order to determine, at Geneva, the length of the
pendulum which beats seconds. The instrument, executed by M. Repsold,
of Hamburg, was confided to him by the federal geodesic commission, and the
same apparatus will successively serve to ascertain the gravitation at different
points of Switzerland. He also exhibited to the society a portable sun-dial,
constructed on a model analogous to those which have been established at a
certain number of federal meteorological stations, when the distance from a
telegraphic office or the absence of regular postal communications rendered it
necessary to furnish observers with the means of obtaining the exact time.
These sun-dials have been constructed by MM. Herrmann and Studer, of Berne.
The apparatus exhibited to the society differs from those established perma-
nently at the several stations by certain modifications which allow of their being
adjusted at any place of which the latitude and the declination of the magnetic
needle are known. For this purpose the instrument is provided with a circle,
by means of which the axis may be fixed according to the elevation of the
equator, and with a compass for adjusting it. The true solar hour may thus be
obtained to within a fraction of a minute.
General Dufour presented a report on the attempts which have been made to
construct topographical plots by the help of photography, and showed that com-
plete ones can scarcely be obtained in this way, because salient points would
necessarily mask the others Professor Marcet communicated some of
the results deduced by M. Glaisher from his meteorological discussion of a series
of observations made for about ninety years at Greenwich. He called notice
particularly to the gradual elevation of mean temperature which seems to have
been manifested in the course of that period.
Professor de la Rive communicated to the society his new researches on elec-
tricity, particularly those relating to the influence exerted on the molecular
constitution of bodies by the combined action of electricity and magnetism. He
has resumed the experiments which he had made in 1846, on the sounds ren-
dered by conducting bodies traversed by discontinuous currents, when they are
submitted to the influence of a strong electro-magnet, and he is disposed to at-
tribute this rupture of molecular equilibrium to an effect of orientation of the
molecules, analogous to that which takes place in magnetic bodies simply tra-
versed by a discontinuous current. He has also made experiments on the in-
fluence exerted by the vicinity of a very intense magnetic force on the arrange-
ment of the metallic particles when these are in process of deposition at the
negative electrode in the decomposition of the salts of magnetic metals. Again,
the passage of the luminous jet of the Ruhmkorff apparatus across metallic
vapors, produced by means of a voltaic are, has furnished to M.de la Rive very
curious and interesting results. This luminous jet assumes, in its passage
through these vapors, a well-defined color, varying from one metal to another,
202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
so that this color becomes a characteristic indication of each metal. In experi-
menting on metallic alloys, he found that there is a decomposition of their ele-
ments in metallic vapors, such as results from the deposit of particles on the
electrodes.
M. de la Rive has further. occupied the attention of the society on several
occasions with researches directed to the study of the relations existing between
the variations indicated by magnetic instruments, variations of the atmospheric
condition and the telluric currents which are manifested by putting in communica-
tion, through a telegraphic wire, two plates sunk in the earth at a great distance
from each other. (Bibliotheg. Universelle, Archives des Sct. Phys. et Nat. vol.
xxii.) These communications were made either on the oecasion of letters
addressed to our colleague by Father Secchi and read to the society, or of me-
moirs published by the latter. It was to researches on the same subject that
the note presented by M. de la Rive to the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences,
during its last session at Zurich, related, which note concluded with the pro-
position that the society should nominate a commission charged with making
experiments on terrestrial currents, analogous to those which Father Secchi has
executed in two directions in the environs of Rome. ‘The proposition having
been accepted and the commission named, authority has been obtained from the
federal directory of telegraphs, which has manifested herein the utmost com-
plaisance and interest, for making use, during a certain number of hours, of the
direct wire connecting two distant stations, whether in the direction of the
magnetic meridian or in the perpendicular direction. Experiments were first
made this spring by Professor de la Rive and Louis Dufour on the line between
Berne and Lausanne, and are to be continued. If we are authorized in assuming,
in conformity with the opinion of those physicists who have been most occupied
with the subject, that the regular magnetic variations consist of two periodical
variations superposed on one another, having different laws and due to different
immediate causes, it is evident that the efforts of science should be directed to
a means of isolating the effect produced by one of the causes whose combined
action is manifested on the magnetized bars. It is in the sun, according to M.
de la Rive, that we must seek the origin of these two different modes of action
on the terrestrial magnetism; one of them is due to the direct influence of the
sun, which varies according to the distance of that body and the nature of its
surface, as is proved by the correlation between the period of the magnetic
variations and that of the spots of the sun; the other would seem due to the
urrents produced by the positive electricity of the atmosphere and the negative
electricity of the earth, which tend constantly to neutralize one another in the
polar regions, while the cause, which operates also constantly to separate the
two electricities, resides in the sun. Now, as M. de la Rive states, it would
appear most easy to isolate the terrestrial currents in order to study their varia-
tions and the phenomena to which they give rise, and it is with this view that
he has proposed to make in Switzerland also, experiments on the currents
derived from the great terrestrial current.
M. Louis Soret read a memoir* on researches undertaken to verify the electro-
lytic law in a particular case, and which completes previous labors of the same
savant. ‘This memoir was directed to a comparison of the intensity of discontinu-
ous currents (particularly when the Ruhmkorff apparatus is introduced into the
circuit) with the chemical action of those currents measured by the weight of
the deposit of copper which is produced. M. Soret also called the attention of
the society at different times to the more recent labors of M. Tyndall, and, among
others, to the researches of the English physicist on the relations which exist
between calorific and luminous radiations, and on the singular property of a
“ Recherches sur la correlation de Uclectricité dynamique et des autres forces physiques.
Memoires de la Societé de Physique et d’ Histoire Naturelle, tome X VIII.
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 203
solution of iodine in the sulphuret of carbon; this substance completely obstructs
the passage of the light without intercepting the heat. ‘The interesting investi-
gations of M. Tyndall on the invisible rays of the electric light and on the
calorescence were also analyzed by M. Soret.
Professor Wartmann made a report on the observations of M. Castracane,
and on the employment of monochromatic light applied to the microscope. M.
Castracane has availed himself of this process in his researches on living and
fossil diatomeze, of which he will soon publish an atlas, and M. Wartmann ex-
hibited to the society photographic images of these minute organisms which the
learned Italian has succeeded in obtaining. M. Wartmann also presented a
report on the memoir of M. Plateau relative to a curious problem of magnetism,
the possibility, namely, of maintaining a magnetic body in stable equilibrium by
magnetic forces. ‘The same problem was made the subject of remarks offered
by MM. Lucien de la Rive and Cellerier. The latter examined particularly
the ease in which the force, instead of ‘acting in the inverse ratio of the square
of the distance, would act in the inverse ratio of the fifth power, as this oceurs
with bodies electrified by induction, and he proved that neither in this case
could a stable equilibrium be obtained.
Professor Marignac communicated the first results of a series of researches
which he has undertaken on the niobium. (Bib. Univers., Archives, &c., vol.
xxiii.) He first examined the double fluorides which the hyponiobie fluoride
forms with other metallic fluorides, and has arrived at the conclusion that the
hyponiobium is not an allotropie modification of niobium, but rather an oxide of
niobium. He has also recognized the association of tantalic acid with hy ponio-
bie acid in the colombites of America, and he indicates a means of separating
them. He proves, finally, that tantalie acid comprises five equivalents of oxy-
gen, like the hyponiobic acid. Professor Marignac also read a note (Bid. Unz-
vers., Archives, &c., vol. Xxii) on certain consequences which result from the re-
searches of M. Karl Than, relative to the anomalous density of the vapor of sal
ammoniac, and from those of M. Deville on the decomposition of water by heat.
M. Marignae pointed out that the combination of two bodies frequently gives
rise to a temperature much more elevated than that which is necessary in order
to effect the decomposition of the compounds which they form. It results from
this, that the time requisite for the accomplishment of a combination or a com-
bustion depends on the rapidity with which the surplus of heat produced by
that act is capable of being dissipated by communicating itself to the surround-
ing bodies; this interval might even become very long, if the question related
to bodies forming a considerable mass entirely isolated in space, and unable to
part with heat except by the slow process of radiation.
M. Delafontaine read to the society a memoir, in which he recites a first se-
ries of researches on the earths of the gadolinite; his experiments related to
erbine, terbine, and yttria, of which oxides he has determined the atomic weight
by analyses of their sulphates, and he combats the opinion: pronounced by M.
Popp, that erbine is one of the oxides of cerite. The same member presented
a series of researches on the salts of molybdic acid, (Bib. Univers., Archives, &c.,
vol. xxiii,) aud on their comparison with the tungstates; he has detected two
series of salts: one of which is composed of neutral salts, and the other is par-
allel to the paratungstates. He exhibited to the society a fragment of meteo-
rite, picked up after the fall of a large number of aerolites, which occurred May
i4, 1864, in the environs of Montauban. ‘The matter composing this fragment
is of a porous appearance and a relatively slight density ; it contains 13 per cent.
of water, and 6 per cent. of a substance very similar to lignite. Another memoir
which M. Delafontaine read to the society relates to his researches on the spectra
of absorption, (Bb. Univers., Archives, &c., vol. xxii); when the rays of the
solar spectrum are made to pass through a solution of certain metals, we obtain
a spectrum much modified; certain bands more or less large may then be ob-
204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
served, according to the degree of concentration of the solution. The metals
on which these experiments were made are didyme, erbium, and terbium.
Dr. W. Marcet read two memoirs: one on a colloid acid derived from urine,
in which some new details were added respecting the chemical properties and
atomic weight of this acid; the second memoir (B’b. Univers., Archives, &c.,
vol. xxii) had for its object the muscular dialysis, M. Marcet proving in this
paper that the muscular substance is permeable for colloid as well as erystal-
lizable substances. ———— M. Chaix offered some remarks on the accumulation
of volcanoes, whether extinct or in activity, with which recent explorations
have made us acquainted in certain regions of the globe, particularly in the re-
publie of Nicaragua and in New Zealand. He also indicated, on the authority
of a memoir of M. Abich, the appearance of several new islands, which have
emerged in the Caspian sea, as a sequel of volcanic movements in 1857 and
1864. ———— Dr. Pitschner read an account of his ascension of Mont Blane in
1859, during which he took occasion to make observations on different points of
terrestrial physics, physiology, and zoology.
NATURAL SCIENCES.
Professor Favre presented to the society a memoir, (Bib. Univers., Archives,
&c., vol. xxii,) in which he recapitulates, from an historical point of view, the
discussion which has taken place on the subject of the coal formation of the
Alps, and announces the conclusions at which he has arrived from his observa-
tions made in different parts of those mountains. The study of the chain of
Mont Blane formed the subject of two memoirs read by M. Favre; in the first,
he occupies himself with the fan-shaped structure of that group, and after having
discussed the different theories advanced on this subject, he concurs in the
opinion pronounced by M. Lory, adding some considerations on the protogene
of which the chain is formed. In the other memoir he undertakes to investi-
gate the succession and thickness of the strata which must have covered that
part of the surface of the earth before the mass of Mont Blane made its appear-
ance and upheaved the formations which covered it. These formations have
been gradually removed by the action of atmospheric agents, and thence has
resulted an enormous denudation, laying bare the protogene. M. Favre seeks
to calculate the volume gauged by the formations thus removed, and he shows
that the greatest elevation of the chain, before these denudations, may explain
in part the greatest extension of the glaciers. Our colleague, lastly, read to the
society his letter, (Bib. Universelle, Archives, &c., vol. xxii,) addressed to Sir R.
Murchison, in which he combats the theory of the excavation of the alpine
lakes and valleys by glaciers. It was the study of the lake of Geneva and of
the direction of the geological strata on the two shores, whether in the eastern
or western part, which furnished M. Favre with proof that the depression of the
bed of the lake must have proceeded from a cause wholly different from an ex-
cavation by glaciers.
Professor Pictet presented a memoir (Bib. Univers., Archives, &c., vol. xxi)
on the succession of gasteropod mollusks in the cretaceous lakes of the Jura and
the Swiss Alps. ‘The study of the fossiis collected at Sainte Croix has enabled
him to recognize in that locality the existence of nine successive faunas, inde-
pendent of one another and almost without mixture, between the epoch of the
lower valangian and that of the chloritic chalk of Rouen. A comparison with
the cotemporaneous faunas of the neighboring countries shows that the species
are there associated somewhat differently, and hence M. Pictet concludes, from
analogy with what occurs in our present seas, that we cannot consider each
species as characteristic of the whole of a period. It must rather be admitted,
contrary to an opinion quite widely entertained, that the greater part of species
have a variable signification, according to the geographic region where they are
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 205
found. Professor Pictet also presented a memoir, (Bib. Univers., Archives, &e.,
vol. xxii,) by MM. d’Espine and EK. Favre, in which these two young savants,
who had just finished their studies at. the academy of Geneva, record their re-
searches made in certain localities in the region of the Alps, where the faunas
of the lower and the upper gault are found intermingled. ‘The localities studied
by. them are la Goudinicre, near the Grand-Bornand, the mountain of Criou,
above Samoéns, and the Wannen-Alp, in the canton of Schwytz. To this me-
moir, presented for the annual competition founded as a parallel to the Davy
prize, the premium was awarded.
M. de Loriol read a memoir (Memoires de la Société de Phys. et d’ Hist. Nat.
de Geneve, vol. xviii,) on the infracretaceous fresh-water strata of Villers-le-Lac,
(Doubs,) in which he arrives at the following conclusions: the Portlandian dolo-
mites of the Jura are the equivalent of the Plattenkalk of Hanover and of the
limestones @ plaquettes of the Charente; they do not pertain to the Portlandian,
and they form the base of the Purbeckian group. The fresh-water limestones
and marls of Villers are the equivalent of the Mundener Mergel and serpulite of
Hanover, as well as of the gypsiferious clays of the Charente. Again, this in+
fracretaceous group of Villers and the Jura is the equivalent of the Purbeck
beds of England, of which they represent the middle and the lower part.
M. Humbert presented a memoir (Memoires dela Soc. de Phys. et d’ Hist. Nat.
de Geneve, vol. xviii) on the myriapods of Ceylon, of which he had an opportu-
nity of collecting a great number of individuals during his sojourn in that island.
The author draws the attention of naturalists to certain organs, heretofore
little studied, and which furnish important characters for the establishment of
genera and species. M. de Saussure presented to the society a new number of
his work on the orthoptera of Mexico. This number is devoted to the family
of Blattze, several specimens of which the author exhibited, and respecting
which his researches have led him to verify some interesting facts. He points
out, among others, a very singular peculiarity in the structure of the wing of a
tribe of this family, to which he has given the name of diplopterians. In these
insects the wing is folded into four dyplicates which are exactly superposed by
means of a longitudinal and a transversal crease; it is by gradual modifications
that the structure of the wing deviates more and more, in the three genera
established in this tribe by M. de Saussure, from the normal type of duplicature
which occurs in the orthoptera.
M. Fatio exhibited to the society an apparatus, (Bulletin de la Soc. Ornitho-
logique Suisse, vol. i,) to which he has given the name of oometre, constructed
with a view of determining the dimensions of the eggs of birds measured in all
directions, and consequently their exact form. It might serve as well for the
analogous measurement of shells. The same member gave information of a
colony of ash-colored herons which he has discovered on the shore of the lake
of Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Pilate; during an excursion made in that
locality he ascertained the existence of from 200 to 300 nests of these birds.
Professor Claparede made a report (Bib. Univers., Archives, &e., vol. xxii) on
certain interesting results at which Dr. I'ritz Muller has arrived in his studies
of the crustacea of the island of St. Catharina, on the coast of Brazil. On com-
paring the respiratory apparatus in the families of the land crabs which are de-
rived from those of the marine crabs, M Miller found that the adaptation of
this apparatus to aerial life is not accomplished by the same process in each
family, whence the author draws a conclusion favorable to the theory of Dar-
win. Professor Claparede likewise presented us an analysis of the researches
of Professor Wagner, at Casan, respecting certain larvie of flies, in the interior
of which small larvee are developed, which issue forth by piercing the skin, and
become like their mother; thus a series of generations of larv is presented,
Without the perfect insect having been obtained. Our colleague noticed also
206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF
the discovery made by M. Leuckardt of an interesting case of alternating gene-
ration in the Ascarides nigrovenosa.
M. Duby presented a report on the investigations of M. Bary, of Fribourg, in
Brisgau, relative to certain parasitical fungi which are observed on the leaves
of the erucifere. MM. de Bary has discovered a sexual generation among these
fungi, and has observed also a true alternating generation in certain kinds;
hence, he has felt authorized to refer to one and the same species, fungi, which
have been heretofore classified in different species and even in different tribes.
It is to one of these fungi, the Perenospora infestans, that M. de Bary attributes
the malady of the potato,
Personnel.—Our society has, in the course of the year, sustained the loss of
one of its members in ordinary, M. Pyrame-Louis Morin, whom a premature
death has torn from science and his country before he had completed his fiftieth
year. In rapidly sketching the scientific career of our deceased colleague I
shall not pretend to offer a complete portrait of a life so usefully and honorably
occupied. I shall not speak of the devoted citizen who was animated with so
ardent a love for his country, and who gave proof of an enlightened patriotism
through the political agitations of the last twenty-five years. I shall not speak
of the pharmaceutist who bestowed upon his preparations the same care and
exactness which a consummate chemist applies to the most delicate analyses.
Nor shall I speak of the services rendered by Morin to the industry of our city,
for even now a voice much more eloquent than mine retraces the part which he
has filled in the Society of Arts, and more especially in the class of industry to
which he had dedicated for many years all the time at his disposal. I shall
confine myself to a sketch of his career as a man of science and a member of our
socicty.
Born at Geneva, in March, 1815, he was placed at the age of ten years in the
institute of M. Naville, at Vernier, where he pursued his early studies, till ad-
mitted, in 1832, as a pupil at the Academy of Geneva to prosecute the scientific
courses then comprised in the faculty of philosophy. His taste for chemistry,
which was thus developed, naturally peinted out the path which he was to
follow, and he joined his uncle, M. Antoine Morin, in order to fulfil, as a
student of pharmacy, the apprenticeship of his new vocation. He afterwards
passed two years at the University of Zurich, where he became preparator
for M. Leewig and director of the laboratory of practical chemistry; he gave
also in that city courses of chemistry applied to the arts.
He thence proceeded to Berlin, where he had the advantage of being placed
under the special direction of M. Mitscherlich, and he here published his first
scientific memoir, which had for its object researches on the bisulphurate of
ethyle; this paper was inserted in the Annals of Poggendorf. He completed
his practical studies in Paris, at the establishment then conducted by M. Sou-
beiran, and returning to Geneva in 1840 was admitted as pharmaceutist, after
undergoing the examinations required at that period, embracing, as a qualifying
test, an analytical disquisition on the red quinquina. At the close of that year
he was received into our society, of which he was an assiduous attendant to the
last, and an active participant in its labors. Among the memoirs which he
published, most of which were presented to this body, are several which relate
to the waters of Saxon, and to the long controversies which he was called to
sustain in reference to that subject. In his second analysis, published in 1853,
he had shown the intermission of iodine in that fountain, a result which was at
first contested by MM. Rivier and Fellenberg, who were not slow, however, in
recognizing the exactness of the facts advanced by Morin, and in conforming to
his opinion. Atalater date M. Ossian Henri, whose name was an authority, main-
tained the constant presence of the iodine, but contended that it was sometimes
masked by a sulphurous principle. On this occasion Morin made new researches
and a complete study of the subject, proving, among other things, that there
PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 207
was no sulphurous principle in the water of Saxon, and establishing irrefutably,
by a series of numerous quantitative analyses, that the constant existence of
iodine therein was an illusion, and its intermission a reality.
From the very titles of the memoirs published by Morin it may be seen that
his researches were chiefly directed towards a practical end, and that the numer-
ous analyses which he conducted were undertaken with a view to application
rather than to theory. But that in which we recognize the chemist, conversant
with the entire progress and with every demand of the science, is the exactness
and care with which all these analytical researches were made. It was this
tendency towards the application of science to the arts which impelled Morin
to devote himself more and more to the class of industry, that section of the
Society of Arts in which he found the field of activity that best suited him.
Although his health had been seriously affected for more than two years,
his zeal and activity were not for a moment relaxed, and it was only since the
month of September last that the progress of the malady obliged him to renounce
his occupations. He died 1st of December, 1864, after many months of suffering,
bearing with him the regrets of his colleagues and of all who had known and
could appreciate the worth of the man aud the savant.
I shall recall, lastly, the different nominations which have been made in the
course of the year: M. Arthur Achard has been named as member in ordinary ;
M. Berthelot, professor of the normal school, and General Morin, director of the
conservatory of arts and trades at Paris, have been elected honorary members;
and Dr. Ed. Dufresne, associate at large. In the elections which have taken place
for the renewal of the bureau, at the commencement of the year, you have called
to the presidency Dr. Gosse; whence it will result that, by a happy coincidence,
the same year which is destined to the celebration at Geneva of the fiftieth
anniversary of the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, will be marked in our
own association by the presidency of the son of that savant to whom Switzerland
is indebted for an institution whuse utility is every year more highly appreciated.
THE AURORA BOREALIS, OR POLAR LIGHT:
ITS PHENOMENA AND LAWS.
BY ELIAS LOOMIS,
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND ASTRONOMY IN YALE COLLEGE,
Tue Aurora Polaris is a luminous appearance frequently seen near the horizon
as a diffuse light like the morning twilight, whence it has received the name of
aurora. . In the northern hemisphere it is usually termed aurora, borealis,
because it is chiefly seen in the north. Similar phenomena are also seen in the
southern hemisphere, where it is called the aurora australis. Each of them
might with greater propriety be called aurora polaris or polar light.
The aurora exhibits an infinite variety of appearances, but they may generally
be referred to one of the following classes :
1. A horizontal light, like the morning aurora or break of day. The polar
light may generally be distinguished from the true dawn by its position in the
heavens, since in the United States it always appears in the northern quarter.
This is the most common form of aurora, but it is not an essentially distinct
variety, being due to a blending of the other varieties in the distance.
2. An arch of light somewhat in the form of a rainbow. This arch frequently
extends entirely across the heavens from east to west, and cuts the magnetic
meridian nearly at right angles. This arch does not long remain stationary, but
frequently rises and falls; and when the aurora exhibits great splendor, several
parallel arches are often seen at the same time, appearing as broad belts of light
stretching from the eastern to the western horizon. In the polar regions five
such arches have been seen at once,* and on two occasions have been seen nine
parallel arches separated by distinct intervals.t
3. Slender luminous beams or columns, well defined, and often of a bright
light. These beams rise to various heights in the heavens, 30°, 50°, 70°, and
sometimes, though rarely, they pass the zenith. Frequently they last but a
few minutes; sometimes they continue a quarter of an hour, a half hour, or even
a whole hour. Sometimes they remain at rest, and sometimes they have a quick
lateral motion. Their light is commonly of a pale yellow, sometimes reddish,
occasionally crimson, or even of blood color. Sometimes the tops of these beams
are pointed, and having a waving motion, they resemble the lambent flames of
half-extinguished alcohol, burning upon a broad, flat surface. Sometimes the
luminous beams are interspersed with dark rays, resembling dense smoke.
4. The corona. Luminous beams sometimes shoot up simultaneously from
nearly every part of the horizon, and converge to a point a little south of the ze-
nith, forming a quivering canopy of flame, which is called the corona. The sky
now resembles a fiery dome, and the crown appears to rest on variegated fiery
pillars, which are frequently traversed by waves or flashes of light. This may
be called a complete aurora, and comprehends most of the peculiarities of the
other varieties.
*Franklin’s First Expedition, p. 588. -
t Voyages en Scandinavie, 1833, pp. 170-171.
AURORA BOREALIS: 209
The corona seldom continues complete longer than one hour. The streamers
then become fewer and less intensely colored; the luminous arches break up,
while a dark segment is still visible near the northern horizon; and at last
nothing remains but masses of delicate cirro-cumulus clouds. During the ex-
hibition of brilliant auroras, delicate fibrous clouds are commonly seen floating
in the upper regions of the atmosphere; and on the morning after a great noc-
turnal display, we sometimes recognize the same streaks of cloud which had
been luminous during the preceding night. Sometimes during the day these
clouds arrange themselves in forms similar to the beams of the aurora, constituti
what has been called a day aurora.
5. Waves or flashes of light. The luminous beams sometimes appear to
shake with a tremulous motion; flashes like waves of light roll up towards the
zenith, and sometimes travel along the line of an auroral arch. Sometimes the
beams have a slow lateral mption from east to west, and sometimes from west
to east. These sudden flashes of auroral light are known by the name of merry-
dancers, and form an important feature of nearly every splendid aurora.
The duration of auroras is very variable. Some last only an hour or two;
others last all night; and occasionally they appear on two successive nights,
under circumstances which lead us to believe that, were it not for the light of
the sun, au aurora might be seen uninterruptedly for 36 or 48 hours. For more
than a week, commencing August 28, 1859, in the northern part of the United
States, the aurora was seen almost uninterruptedly every clear night. In the
neighborhood of Hudson’s bay the aurora is seen for months almost without ces-
sation.
Auroras are cfaracterized by recurring fits of brilliancy. After a brilliant
aurora has faded away, and almost wholly disappeared, it is common for it to
revive, so as to rival and often to surpass its first magnificence. ‘Two such fits
are common features of brilliant auroras; and sometimes three or four occur on
the same night.
‘The color of the aurora is very variable. If the aurora be faint, its light is
usually white or a pale yellow. When the aurora is brilliant, the sky exhibits
at the same time a great variety of tints; some portions of the sky are nearly
white, but with a tinge of emerald green; other portions are of a pale yellow or
straw color; others are tinged with a rosy hue, while others have a crimson hue
which sometimes deepens to a blood red. These colors are ever varying in po-
sition and intensity.
Auroras are sometimes observed simultaneously over large portions of the
globe. That of August 28, 1859, was seen over more than 140 degrees of lon-
gitude from California to eastern Europe; and from Jamaica on the south to
an unknown distance in. British America on the north. The aurora of Septem-
ber 2, 1859, was geen at the Sandwich Islands; it was seen throughout the whole
of North America and Europe; and the magnetic disturbances indicated its
presence throughout all northern Asia, although the sky was overcast, so that
at many places it could not be seen. An aurora was seen at the same time in
South America and New Holland. The auroras of September 25, 1841, and
November 17, 1848, were almost equally extensive.
Dark segment —In the United States an aurora is uniformly preceded by a
hazy or slaty appearance of the sky, particularly in the neighborhood of the
northern horizon.. When the auroral display commences, this hazy portion of
the sky assumes the form of a dark bank or segment of a circle in the north,
rising ordinarily to the height of from five to ten degrees. This dark segment is
not a cloud, for the stars are seen through it as through a dense smoke.
M. Struve says, “the stratus that rests on the northern horizon, and appears
to be the base of all the aurore boreales that I have seen for a long time at
Dorpat, (latitude 58° 21’N,) is not a cloud, but merely the sky somewhat darkened.*
Very frequently, when it was quite black, and very high above the horizon, we
14 5
o
1B
210 AURORA BOREALIS.
have seen the stars without any diminution in their brilliancy. Its dark appear-
ance is the effect of contrast with the luminous are.*”
In the year 1838 the French government sent out a scientific expedition to
make explorations in the Arctic seas. Five members of this commission spent
the winter of 1838-39 at Bossekop, in the north of Europe, (latitude 69° 58’ N.,
longitude 12 33™ E. of Greenwich,) for the purpose of making observations upon
the aurora borealis, and other meteorological phenomena. ‘The observers were
MM. Lottin, Bravais, Lilliehook, and Siljestrom, while M. Bevalet made
sketches of the most remarkable auroras. ‘These observers, in their final report,
say: ‘ The dark segment was situated near the magnetic meridian towards the
north, and was generally illumined by auroral light. Sometimes the illumina-
tion prevailed throughout the entire extent of the upper border of the segment ;
sometimes the illumination was only local and partial. Someiimes it presented
the ordinary appearance of an auroral arch; but generally the source of the
illumination seemed to be dehind the segment, near the horizon, or even below
it. The lower edge of the luminous band which crowned the segment was dif-
fuse, and seemed to be the result of the i increasing density of the hazy stratum
traversed By the visual ray.
“ Once the dark segment was observed at the south point of the horizon, and
appeared bordered by the auroral light. At other times the haze extended
towards the east and west part of the horizon; it then appeared to overlap the
lower extremity of the arches which passed near the zenith, and concealed their
point of intersection with the horizon.
“The appearance of an aurora is not necessarily preceded hy this dark sege
ment, several brilliant auroras having been seen when the sky was clear and of
a deep blue quite down to the horizon.
“The light cf the stars is but little diminished by passing through the sub-
stance of the aurora. ‘The smallest stars can be seen through the rays of the
aurora, especially when its light is feeble and diffuse.”
The highest point of this dark segment is generally found in the magnetic
meridian. Exceptional cases, however, frequently occur, and in certain regions
there appear to be constant causes which tend to deviate this point uniformly in
the same direction. Thus at Abo, (latitude 60° 27’ N.,) M. Argelander found
that this summit was 11° west of the magnetic meridian.t
Auroral arches—TYhe dark segment is bounded by a luminous are, whose
breadth varies from a half degree to one or two degrees. The lower edge is well
defined, but the upper edge is ; only so when the breadth is very small. As the
breadth increases the upper edge becomes less definite, and at length its light
becomes confounded with a general brightness of the sky. If the aurora be-
comes brilliant, other ares usually form at greater elevations, sometimes passing
through the zenith. Gs
The summit of these ares is situated nearly in the magnetic meridian, and the
are sometimes extends symmetrically on each side tow ards the horizon. During
the winter of 1838 and 1839 numerous measurements of auroral arches were
made in Seandinavia (latitude 70°) by MM. Lottin and Bravais, with the aid
of a theodolite, and the result of 225 observations gave an average deviation of
10° towards the west of the magnetic meridian. ‘The deviation was only about
6° for ares rising but little above the northern horizon; it was about 129 for
ares passing near the zenith. 'This result is almost indentical with that obtained
by Argelander at Abo.
The auroral arches observed by Captain Parry, in his Arctic voyages, did not
always 8 have their centres in the magnetic meridian.§ A splendid auroral arch
¥ * Pogeendor! f Ann., poane Dp: 4s 56.
t Voy ages en Scandinavie, pp. 437-442.
t Kaen:iz’s Meteorology, by Walker, p. 453.
§ Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 139.
AURORA BOREALIS. 211
observed at New Haven, Connecticut, March 27, 1781, touched the eastern
horizon at E. 2° S. by compass, and it touched the western horizon at W. 20°
N. by compass, indicating a deviation of 11° to the east of the magnetic me-
ridian. Observers in most parts of Europe, and also in the United States, have
generally described auroral arches as perpendicular to the magnetic meridian.
It is desirable that an extended series of observations should be made, to deter-
mine the azimuth of each extremity of these arches. It is not improbable that
such observations would show not merely that auroral arches are occasionally
not perpendicular to the magnetic meridian, but that, for many localities, there
is a small constant deviation from this position.
Form of auroral arches—Auroral arches are not arcs of great circles; that
is, they do not cut the horizon at points 180° from each other. This is shown
conclusively by the observations made by Lottin and Bravais in latitude 70°.
The following table shows the average result of 145 observations, arranged in
seven groups, according to the height of the arcs.*
Ist group... ------height = 20°.2........ amplitude = 137°.7........16 observations.
2d group...-----height 41°.4........amplitude 1549.4........20 observations.
3d group.-------height 70°.1......-.amplitude 163°.9........17 observations.
4th group .------height 90° 0......--amplitude 175°.4........41 observations.
5th group .------height 1089.5........amplitude — 185°.0........27 observations.
6th group .------height 136°.8........amplitude 1849.2........21 observations.
7th group --.----height 157°.3......--amplitude 190°.0..-...-.. 3 observations.
The altitudes are supposed to be measured from the north horizon, and the
amplitude is the angular distance between the two extremities of the are, meas-
ured on the north side.
If we divide the observations into three groups, we have—
Northern ares ---.-- height = 449.2....-...amplitude = 152°.4...-...53 observations.
Zenith ares ...-----height 90°.0.......amplitude 175°.4.......41 observations.
Southern ares-.-.--height 123°.0.......amplitude | 184°.9.....--51 observations.
Careful measurements made at five or six points of some of the most remarkable
ares showed that, except near the horizon, they may be regarded as portions of
small circles parallel to the earth’s surface. Near the horizon there is some-
times a sensible deviation from this circular form, and the appearance is some-
times that of a portion of an ellipse, the extremities of the arch being bent
inward, as shown in Fi
the annexed figure.
Such appearances were
frequently noticed by
Lottin and Bravais in )
Seandinavia. Hans-
teen says that, at Christiania, latitude 59° 54’, he has twice seen an ellipse
almost entire.t
Observations made at New Haven accord remarkably with the preceding.
Of 27 auroral arches whose average height was 84° the average amplitude
was 80°. A single arch, whose altitude was 669, had an amplitude of 165°.
During the splendid aurora of September 2, 1859, near Cape Horn, in lati-
tude 57° south, there was noticed a bright yellowish light forming an ellipse
whose diameters were as two to one, the centre of the ellipse being elevated
about 15° above the south horizon §
Number of auroral arches —On the 2d of January, 1839, Lottin and Bravais
saw nine different arches at the same time; November 2 and January 24, they
* Voyages en Scandinavie, pp. 466-478:
t Memoires de l’ Academie de Belgique, t. 20, p. 119.
$ Amevican Journal of Science, n. s., v. 39, p. 239.
§ Ibid., v. 30, p. 89.
212 AURORA BOREALIS.
saw seven; January 3 and 21, six arches; January 7, five arches; September 30,
October 15, and December 25, four arches. The number of cases of three
arches seen simultaneously was considerable; and examples of two arches were
extremely frequent.
Breadth of auroral arches.—This element is not the same when an arch
appears near the horizon as when it is seen near the zenith. At Bossekop, in
Scandinavia, for arches seen in the north at altitudes less than 60°, from a mean
of twenty observations the average breadth of the arches was 7°. Near the
zenith and between the limits of 30° zenith distance cither north or south,
the mean of fifteen measurements gave a breadth of 25°. For arches seen south
of the zenith at altitudes less than 60°, the mean of nine observations gave a
breadth of 8°.
The following example shows the change in the breadth of an arch during
its progress across the sky. December 16, the arch being in the south, at an
elevation of 52°, its breadth was 5°; a little later the arch passed the zenith
and had an altitude of 70° towards the north; its breadth was then 40°. The
arch continued to sink, and when its altitude was 61°, its breadth was only 28°;
and at an altitude of 41° its breadth was about 6°. If the distance of an
arch from the earth remained constant during its movement of translation, and
the arch were of the form of a solid ring whose section was a circle, its breadth
when in the zenith should be double that at an elevation of 30°. But the ave-
rage of many measurements gave its breadth in the former case three or four
times as great as in the latter; showing that the greatest breadth of a section of
the ring is parallel to the earth.
Anomalous Jorms of arches—Sometimes an auroral arch consists of rays
arranged in irregular and sinuous bands of various and variable curvature, pre-
senting the appearance of the undulations of a ribbon or flag waving in the
breeze. Sometimes the appearance is that of a brilliant curtain whose folds are
agitated by the wind. ‘These folds sometimes become very numerous and
complex, and the arch assumes the form of a long sheet of rays returning into
itself, the folds enveloping each other and presenting an immense variety of the
most graceful curves. Sometimes these curves are continually changing, and
develop themselves like the folds of a serpent.
It is evident, therefore, that a variety of disturbing causes may prevent an
auroral arch from taking up a position perpendicular to the magnetic meridian.
Movements of auroral arches —An auroral arch does not maintain, invariably,
a fixed position. It is frequently displaced, and is transported, parallel to itself,
from north to south, or from south to north. An arch which first appears near |
the northern horizon sometimes rises gradually, attains the zenith, descends
towards the southern horizon, remains there for a time stationary, and then,
perhaps, retraces its course. The observations made by Lottin, at Bossekop,
presented 60 cases in which auroral arches moved from north to south, and 39
cases from south to north. There were 25 nights upon which only the first of
these movements was observed; 11 nights upon which only the opposite motion
was observed; and 17 nights upon which both movements were observed, suc-
cessively. Thus the motion from north to south appears to have been about
twice as common as that from south to north. Inthe United States, from a
considerable collection of observations it is inferred that the motion from north
to south is about ten times as frequent as the motion from south to north.*
Sometimes there is a movement of the arch from west to east, or from east to
west. Sometimes while the height of the arch remains constant, the entire arch,
seems to turn around the vertical, either in the direction of the diurnal motion,
or in the opposite direction. Lottin and Bravais observed three cases in which
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 34, pp. 41-45.
: AURORA BOREALIS. 213
the movement of rotation was from east to west by the south, and seven in
which the motion was from west to east.
The rate of motion of arches is very variable. The angular motion of trans-
lation sometimes amounts to 17° per minute, and frequently amounts to 5° per
minute. With a vertical elevation of 125 miles above the earth, the last rate
of motion would imply an actual velocity of 1,000 feet per’second. We shall
find, hereafter, that the movement of auroral beams is still more rapid than that
of auroral arches.
Light of auroral arches—The light of auroral arches is generally of a yel-
lowish white; the lower edge is better defined than the upper; the latter is
usually very indefinite and blends with the general tint of the sky. This dif-
ference in the sharpness ef the two edges is less noticeable in southern arches.
The greater distinctness of the lower edge of the arch may in part be ex-
plained by its greater distance from the observer; but it seems probable that
the substance of the upper part of the arch is really less dense and more diffuse
than the under part of the arch.
Structure of auroral arches—Auroral arches generally tend to divide into
short rays running in the direction of the breadth of the arch, and converging
toward the magnetic zenith. They frequently seem to be formed of transverse
fibres, terminating abruptly in a regular curve which forms the lower edge of
thearch. Arches entirely nebulous and homogeneous are not the most frequent;
ares composed of rays, or striated arcs, are very common, and they present
every intermediate shade between those two extremes. Frequently a nebulous
arc resolves itself into a striated are, without changing its general form. Some-
times the rays are distinct and isolated. In this case, the arch generally
increases in breadth, extending on the side of the zenith. Sometimes auroral
beams arrange themselves in the form of an arch, which is subsequently replaced
by an arch of nebulous matter. Ifthe rays of the arch are broader than the
dark intervening spaces, and their light is uniform, we have the singular ap-
pearance of dark rays, or black strie perpendicular to the arch, and projected
upon a luminous surface. ‘This fibrous constitution of auroral arches is most
noticeable when they pass near the zenith. On the evening of April 9, 1863,
there was noticed at New Haven an auroral arch spanning the heavens, and
formed of short streamers parallel to each other. Most of them were from 10°
to 15° in length, and for some time presented the appearance of a row of comets’
tails, all parallel to each other.*
Auroral beams.—Auroral beams present every variety of length from 2° or
*3° up to 90° or more. Their breadth varies from 10/ up to 2° or 3°. The
most brilliant beams have their edges sharply defined. Sometimes by the side
of such a beam the sky appears darker than. elsewhere, the effect, probably, of
contrast. ‘The lower part of a beam is generally better defined than the upper
part. Stars are frequently visible through the substance of the beams.
Motion of auroral beams—TVhis motion is either longitudinal, in virtue of
which the beam extends towards the zenith or the horizon, or it is a lateral
movement which displaces the beam parallel to itself, either from right to left,
or from left to right. Both of these motions may be very rapid. A beam has
been seen to move over an angular space of 90° in 27 seconds.t Beams
-advance either from north to south, or from south to north; but the former mo-
tion is the most common. They sometimes move laterally from east to west,
and sometimes from west to east; but in the United States, the former motion
is the most common.t Frequently a beam extends suddenly either upward or
downward. This motion is most common downward, and sometimes with very
* American Journal of Science, n.s., y. 35, p. 461.
t Voyages en Scandinavie, p. 498.
$ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 34, p. 45.
e
214 AURORA BOREALIS.
great velocity. It is sometimes observed simultaneously in a large number of
neighboring beams. When a beam rises and falls alternately without any con-
siderable change of length, it is said to dance. This is a common occurrence in
high latitudes, where it is known by the name of the merry dancers.
The corona.—W hen the atmosphere is filled with a large number of separate
beams, all parallel to each other and to the direction of the dipping needle, ac-
cording to the rules of perspective these beams will seem to converge to one
point, viz: the magnetic zenith. Hence results the appearance of a corona or
crown of rays, whose centre is generally (but not always) dark. ‘The observers
at Bossekop made 43 measurements of the position of this corona, the mean of
which differed less than one degree from the magnetic zenith. In one instance
the position of the corona differed 15°, and in two other instances it differed 12°
from the magnetic zenith. A portion of these differences may be ascribed to
the difficulty of makiug such observations with precision; but it seems necessary
to conclude that the auroral beams are not always rigorously parallel to the
direction of the dipping needle.
Observations made in other parts of Europe as well as in the United States*
show that the centre of the corona is always very near the magnetic zenith, but
not always exactly coincident with it. From a series of careful measurements
of the aurora of- November 17, 1848, Professor Challis found that the corona
had almost exactly the same altitude as the magnetie zenith, but was situated
1° or 2° more to the west. The observations, however, showed considerable
discordances, which seemed to indicate that the centre of the corona was con-
tinually shifting its position.t :
The corona is sometimes incomplete, sectors of greater or less extent being
deficient. At Bossekop these incomplete coronz generally occupied the north-
ern part of the visible hemisphere. It follows from this that the beams which
form a corona, although covering at times a very large region, ave nevertheless
limited, and frequently did not extend south of Bossekop. The passage of a
striated arch over the magnetic zenith frequently presents the appearance of a
corona. If the arch advances from north to south, before reaching the magnetic
zenith it forms a half crown on the northern side; at the instant of passing the
magnetic zenith we have a complete corona of an elliptic form, whose rays de-
scend nearly to the horizon on the eastern and western sides; after the arch has _
passed the magnetic zenith, there is formed a half crown on the southern side.
Auroral clouds—When an aurora becomes less active, its beams become
more feeble, their edges more diffuse, their length diminishes and their breadth
increases, and they assume the appearance of luminous clouds. Their outline
is rounded and a little less brilliant than the centre. Sometimes they exhibit a
fibrous structure, and present a strong resemblance to cirrus clouds. ‘These
auroral clouds generally correspond to an hour of the night more advanced than
arches and beams. According to observations made at Bossekop on 37 nights
upon which the three forms of arches, beams, and auroral clouds were all ob-
served on the same night, the average time of first appearance was as follows :
Hours. Minutes.
Auroral arches ...... PPD ee LL Ae ae i 52
Auroral beams ..... pies ATS AEN ISI 76 SEN EES 8 26
Auroral clouds ..... PA eS BL Ok SI AE 1l 18 t
The average hour of disappearance was 14 hours 3 minutes.
%
Auroral vapor —F requently, during the exhibition of a brilliant aurora, there
is an appearance of general nebulosity or luminous vapor covering large por-
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 40, p. 286.
t Cambridge Phil. Tyans., v. 8, p. 628.
Pe M
s
AURORA BOREALIS. 215
tions of the heavens, and sometimes almost the entire celestial vault. Sometimes
its light but little exceeds that of the milky way. LIits light is generally faint,
especially in the upper part of the sky, but sometimes its accumulation near the
horizon produces a pretty intense light resembling a vast conflagration. ‘The
great disparity between the light of auroral vapor when viewed near the zenith
and near the horizon is a proof that its vertical thickness is small in comparison
with its horizontal dimensions. Sometimes this distant light resembles the
twilight. This auroral vapor may appear during any phase of a grand aurora,
and is probably due to an extreme diffusion of the substance of auroral arches.
It is frequently seen during the intervals between the disappearance and reap-
pearance of arches and beams.
Colors of the aurora—TVhe color of the aurora is ordinarily white; some-
times it is of a pale yellow, and occasionally it becomes reddish. When ,the
movements of the auroral beams become rapid, the yellow color flows from the
extremities of the beam towards the centre, while one of its extremities becomes
red-and the other green. ‘The red of the aurora is usually tinged with violet,
and does not correspond to the red of the prismatic spectrum. ‘The green is
tolerably pure, blended, perhaps, with a slightly bluish tint. ‘he red tint is
the brighter of the two, and that which disappears the last. Sometimes the
red and green are arranged parallel to the length of the beam, but move fre-
quently the lower part of the beam is red and the upper part green. Sometimes
the entire auroral iilumination becomes of a red color. The coloring of the
aurora is most frequently observed between 10 and 11 o’clock, and this is
usually the period of greatest brilliancy of the aurora.
Geographical distribution of auroras —Auroras are very unequally distributed
over the earth’s surface. They occur most frequently in the higher latitudes,
and are almost unknown within the tropics. At Havana (latitude 23° 9’) but
six auroras have been recorded within a hundred years; and south of Havana,
auroras are still more unfrequent. As we travel northward from Cuba, auroras
increase in frequency and brilliancy; they rise higher in the heavens, and oftencr
attain the zenith. In order to determine the law of distribution of auroras over
the northern hemisphere I have collected observations from 128 localities,
showing, as far as possible, the average number of auroras seen annually at
each place.* These observations are not as complete as could be desired, fre-
quently comprehending a period of less than a year; nevertheless, when we
project them upon a chart we find them unexpectedly consistent with each other.
If we travel from the equator northward along the meridian of Washington,
we find on an average, near the parallel of 46°, only 16 auroras annually.
Near the parallel of 42°, the average number is 20 annually; near 45°,
the number is 40; and near the parallel of 50°, it amounts to 80 annually.
Between this point and the parallel of 62° auroras are seen almost every
night. They appear high in the heavens, and as often to the south as the north.
Further north they are seldom seen except in the south, and from this point
they diminish in frequency and brilliancy as we advance towards the pole.
Beyond latitude 62°, the average number of auroras is reduced to 40 annually.
Beyond latitude 67°, it is further reduced to 20; and near latitude 78°, to 10,
annually. If we make a like comparison for the meridian of St. Petersburgh,
we shall find a similar result, except that the auroral region is situated further
northward than it isin America; the region of 80 auroras annually, being found
between the parallels of 66° and 75°.
Upon the accompanying chart the dark shade indicates the region where the
average number of auroras annually amounts to at least 80; and the lighter
shade indicates the region where the average number of auroras annually
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 30, pp. 89-96.
216 AURORA BOREALIS. _
90
\\ \Y |
a \ es
—
\\\ \
AN
\\\\
A
\
T
CHART
‘ ‘showing the distribution of
AURORAS
in the northern hemisphere,by
Prof. ELIAS LOOMIS.
in 1860.
AURORA BOREALIS. . rp af
amounts to at least 40. We thus see that the region of greatest auroral action
is a zone of an oval form, surrounding the north pole, and whose central line
crosses the meridian of Washington in latitude 56°, and the meridian of St.
Petersburgh in latitude 71°. Accordingly, auroras are more frequent in the
United States than they are in the same latitudes of Enrope. On the parallel
of 45°, we find in North America an average of 40 auroras annually, but in
Europe less than 10.
The form of this auroral zone does not bear any resemblance to the lines of
equal magnetic intensity, but it does bear some resemblance to the lines of
equal magnetic dip. Throughout Asia the line of 80° dip runs nearly through
the centre of the auroral zone, but in America it runs sensibly south of it. It -
bears also considerable resemblance to a magnetic parallel, or line everywhere
perpendicular to a magnetic meridian; and the coincidence of this result with
the uniform position of auroral arches, naturally suggests the idea of a real con-
nexion between the two phenomena. ;
Auroras in the southern hemisphere—We have but a few observations of the
aurora in the southern hemisphere. The most complete record of this kind
which I have found is that made at the British Magnetic Observatory, at Ho-
barton, Van Dieman’s Island, during the years 1841-’48. These observations
have been published by the British government, and embrace 5 auroras in 1841,
12 in 1842, 2 in 1844, 1 in 1846, 9 in 1847, and 5 in 1848, making 34 auroras
in 8 years, being an average of 44 per year; or if we leave out of the account
the years 1843 and 1845, we have an average of 53 per year. Hobarton is in
latitude 42° 52/ south, and the magnetic dip in 1845 was 70° 35’. This dip is
the same as is found in the southern part of England, or in the United States
near Baltimore, and the average number of auroras seen annually in each of
these regions is from 6 to 7. We hence infer that auroras in the southern
hemisphere are nearly if not quite as frequent as they are in corresponding
magnetic latitudes of the northern hemisphere. From August 28 to September
2, 1859, throughout the southern part of South America and also in Australia,
the aurora exhibited a magnificence such as is seldom witnessed in correspond-
ing northern latitudes. ‘The observations are too few to enable us to infer
what is the geographical distribution of auroras in the southern hemisphere,
but they are quite consistent with the supposition that this distribution bears
considerable analogy to that in the northern hemisphere.
Auroras seen simultaneously in both hemispheres —By comparing the records
of auroras in the northern hemisphere with the observations made at Hobarton,
already referred to, we find the coincidences of dates are very remarkable. Out
of the 34 auroras observed at Hobarton, in 11 of the cases an aurora was seen
on the same day at New Haven. ‘These observations were not strictly cotem-
poraneous, for Hobarton and New Haven being in nearly opposite longitudes,
when an aurora was seen at Hobarton it could not be seen at New Haven, on
account of the presence of the sun; but in 11 cases, an aurora was seen within
about twelve hours of its appearance at Hobarton. In several cases when an au-
rora was seen at Hobarton it was cloudy at New Haven, and there were eight
other corresponding cases in which an aurora was seen at some one of the acad-
emies in New York, although not noticed at New Haven. In four additional
cases ai aurora was seen at Toronto, when none was recorded at New Haven
or in the State of New York. There remain, then, only 11 cases of auroras at
Hobarton for which we do not find corresponding observations from one of
these three sources in the northern hemisphere, and in eight of these cases the
sky was overcast from New Haven to Toronto. In each of these 11 cases an
aurora was observed in England, or there were observed unusual disturbances
of the magnetic instruments, indicating the existence of an aurora at no very
remote station. So far, then, as a conclusion is authorized from so small a nuin-
2S ’ AURORA BOREALIS.
ber of observations we should infer that whenever an aurora is seen at Hobarton,
where the magnetic dip is —70°, an aurora occurs at some place in the north-
em hemisphere as far south as where the magnetic dip does not much exceed
75°; in other words, an wnusual auroral display in the southern hemisphere ise.
always accompanied by an unusual display in the northern hemisphere; or an
exhibition of auroral light about one magnetic pole of the earth is uniformly
attended by a simultaneous exhibition of auroral light about the opposite mag-
netic pole.*
Height of the aurora —TVhe great auroral exhibition of August and Septem-
ber, 1559, was very carefully observed at a large number of stations, and these
observations afford the materials for determining the height of the aurora above
the earth’s surface. The southern limit of these auroral displays was not the
same upon all meridians. In North America, the aurora: of August 28
appeared in the zenith as far south as latitude 36° 40’; and it attracted general
attention as far south as latitude 18°. In Central Europe this aurora extended
to the zenith of places as far south as about latitude 45°. It was brilliant at
Rome in latitude 42°, but was not noticed at Athens in latitude 38°; neither
was it seen in western Asia in latitude 409.
In North America, the aurora of September 2 appeared in the zenith at
places as far south as latitude 22° 30’, and attracted general attention in latitude
12°; and if the sky had been clear, some traces of the aurora might probably
have been detected even at the equator. In Europe this aurora was noticed at
Athens in latitude 389. Both of these auroras conformed to the general law of
auroral distribution already explained, the region of greatest auroral action be-
ing in America, about 15° further south than in eastern Europe.
At the most southern stations where these auroras were observed, the light
rose only a few degrees above the northern horizon; at more northern stations
the aurora rose higher in the heavens; at certain stations it just attained the
zenith; at stations further north the aurora covered the entire northern heavens,
as well as a portion of the southern; and at places further north the entire visi-
ble heavens, from the northern to the southern horizon, were overspread with the
auroral light. The following table presents a summary of a few of the most
definite observations on the aurora of August 28, 1859, at about 8° 42™ p. m.,
New Haven time:
Taster I, ;
Locality. Latitude. Extent of auroral display.
+
Ones
North side of Jamaica-..-- Soac0Ce. 18 20 | Like the light of a fire.
inacuay Dahamas=- c-section 2118 | Remarkably brilliant.
igvandeCubass ccs ss hace sie cce 23. 9 | Rose 25° above the north horizon.
KeyawWestublorida. Ls 2252423 24 33 | Rose about 30° above the north horizon.
Savannah, Georgia .-.....--.---- 32 5 | Rose some 45° above the north horizon.
The following table presents a summary of observations of the same aurora,
made at the same hour, at places where the auroral light covered the entire
northern heavens, as well as a portion of the southern:
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, pp. 11-14.
AURORA BOREALIS. 219
TABLE II.
. Locality. Latitude. Extent of auroral display.
Oo v
Sandy Spring, Maryland ........- 39° 9 | Extended to 51° from south horizon.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ....-.--- 39 49 Extended to 30° fiom south horizon.
Philadelphians: doje2ee< 32 2... 39 57 Extended to 224° from south horizon.
Burlington, New Jersey -----.---- 40 5 | Extended to 2U° from south horizon.
New Haven, Connecticut......... 41 18 Extended to 104° from south horizon.
* West Point, New York...--...--.- 4} 23 Extended to 12° from south horizon.
Newburyport, Massachusetts.....- 42 43 | Extended to 6° from south horizon.
Mhewistonm Maine 22-<se.2c2% 2sjace,. 44 5 Extended to 5° from south horizon.
If we combine the preceding observations in Table II, we shall find that the
lower limit of the auroral light was elevated forty-six miles above the earth’s
surface, and that its southern margin was vertical over the parallel of 38° 50’
north latitude in Virginia.
Now it is considered as established that the auroral streamers are luminous
beams sensibly parallel to the direction of the dipping needle. But the dip of
the needle in latitude 38° 50! in Virginia is 71° 20’; and if we draw a line C D,
making an angle of 71° 20/, with the curve line A B, which represents a por-
tion of the earth’s surface, we may assume that the line C D represents the
southern boundary of the auroral illumination. If, then, we assume that the ob-
~~
iS} »
zs §2 S Sates
2) tS Ss eS) S|
R FSi tsy
BS 8 £4 s Sc RS
3S SS eS S Oo ee
CH ar te Ye ” ey eS S
Sys) eS §
ae Ss Ss 5
q R
servations of Table I were made upon the point D, we shall find that the upper
limit of the auroral light was elevated 534 miles above the earth’s surface, and
that its southern margin was vertical over the parallel of 36° 40 north latitude
in Virginia.
The following table presents a summary of the most definite observations of
the aurora of September 2, 1859, made generally about 2 a. m., Havana time:
220 AURORA BOREALIS.
2 TaB.eE III.
Locality. Latitude. | Longitude. | Hour. Extent of auroral display.
Oma! QO f F
LNB Babe dagescecéeee 12 23 88 28 | Midnight | Skylurid; wavy appearance.
La Union, San Salvador..| 13 18 87 45 | 10.3a.m.} About 30° above the north
horizon.
Salvador ss-- sss eeeee. 13 44 Slee [neicise see Same as at La Union. ‘
Kingston, Jamaica.....-. 17 58 76 50 | 1.5 a.m. | Appeared like a colossal fire.
Colic (@ulbaeesasseeeeece 20 0 46: TO Nee raerers Extended upward about 72°.
Eiayvanas| Cubaceeseeeeeee 383) 82 22 2a.m.{ More than 100° in height.
Fort Jefferson, Florida -..| 24 37 82 52 2 a.m. | Extended beyond the zenith.
Micanopy, Florida -.----- 293 &2 18 | 2.30 a.m. | Corona very distinct.
Jacksonville, Florida. .-.- 30 15 82 0 3a.m. | Extreme south in ared glow.
Thomasville, Georgia. .--- 30 50 84 0 2 a.m. | Corona formed.
Paulding, Mississippi ----| 32 20 89 20 | 2.10a.m. | Whole visible heavens over-
spread.
Indianapolis, Indiana .---| 39 55 86) 95) je-ceseee Down to south horizon.
Rochester, New York | 43 8 Tel PL 2a.m. Do. do.
If we combine the last seven observations of the preceding table, we shall
find that the lower limit of the auroral light was elevated fifty miles above the
earth’s surface, and that its southern margin was vertical over the parallel of
25° 15’ north latitude ia Florida. Now the dip of the magnetic needle in
Florida, in latitude 25° 15’, is 55° 40’; and if we draw G H, making an angle
of 55° 40’ with the curve line E I’, which represents a portion of the earth’s sur-
face, and assume that the line G H represents the southern boundary of the
auroral illumination, and that the first five observations of Table III were made
upon the point H, we shall find that the upper limit of the auroral light was
clevated 495 miles above the earth’s surface, and that its southern margin was
8
SI
=
=
ss
Micanopy
Jacksonville
Kingston
La Union
At sea
Rochester
Indianapolis
vertical over the parallel of 22° 30’ north latitude in Cuba.* Combining these
results with the numerous observations of this aurora contained in the American
Journal of Science, volume 32, we find that the aurora of September 2, 1859,
formed a belt of light encircling the northern hemisphere, extending southward
in North America to latitude 224°, and reaching to an unknown distance on the
north; and it pervaded the entire interval between the elevations of 50 and 500
miles above the earth’s surface. This illumination consisted chiefly of luminous
* American Journal ot Science, n. s., v. 32, pp. 319-322,
AURORA BOREALIS. 221
beams or columns, everywhere nearly parallel to the direction of a magnetic
needle when freely suspended; that is, in the United States, these beame were
nearly vertical, their upper extremities being inclined southward at angles vary-
ing from 15° to 30°. ‘These beams were, therefore, about 500 miles in length;
and their diameters varied from five to ten and twenty miles, and perhaps, some-
times, they were still greater.
The aurora of August 28, 1859, formed a belt of light of nearly equal extent,
‘and it pervaded the entire interval between the elevations of 46 and 534 miles
above the earth’s surface. !
The height of a large number of auroras has been computed by similar
methods, and the average result for the upper limit deduced from 31 examples
is about 450 miles.*
Professor Potter, of London University, from a comparison of a very large
number of uncommonly good observations, has determined the height of the
auroral arches of September 17 and October 12, 1833. His results were for the
mean heights of the upper edge of the arches from eight comparisons, 72 miles ;
mean height of the under edge of the arches from two comparisons, 63 miles.t
Dr. Dalton determined the height of the auroral arch of March 29, 1826, to be
100 miles or upwards f »
From these and a multitude of similar results it is concluded that the aurora
seldom if ever appears at an elevation above the earth’s surface less than about
45 miles, and that it extends upwards sometimes to an elevation of at least 500
miles. :
It is believed that these conclusions correspond substantially with the views
of those whose opinions on this subject are entitled to the greatest weight;
nevertheless, there are some, who contend that the aurora is sometimes seen at
elevations of less than one mile above the earth’s surface. In the Philosophical
Transactions of London for 1839, pp. 277-280, Professor James Farquarson, of
Scotland, has given an account of observations upon an auroral arch made at
two stations distant but a little more than a mile apart, from which it was con-
cluded that the height of the lower edge of the arch was only 2,481 feet, or less
than half a mile. It is difficult to decide wherein consisted the fallacy of this
determination. One observation was made at 7" and another at 7" 5™. The
observations at the two stations indicated an apparent parallax of 7°; the arch
was about 12° broad; clouds were visible during botbrobservations; and “at 74
10™ the whole sky had become too much obscured to admit of longer continued
cotemporaneous observations.” It is possible that this cloud hid a portion of the
arch from one of the stations while it was visible at the other, so that the two
observers Were not viewing the same object; or the object of observation might
have been simply a thin cloud illumined by auroral light. I believe Mr. Far-
quarson’s conclusions to be erroneous, because they differ so widely from those
of more practiced observers under at least equally favorable circumstances.
Similar observations for the determination of the parallax of the aurora
were made by the French observers in Scandinavia in 1839. On the 9th of
January M. Bravais left Bossekop and went to Jupvig, distant less than ten
miles, for the purpose of observing the height of auroral arches, while M. Lottin
remained at Bossekop to make similar and simultaneous observations. The
altitudes of the arches were measured with a theodolite, and the times were noted
by a chronometer. On comparing the observations it was discovered that the
aurora always presented nearly the same appearance at the two stations.§ Care-
eT
* Annals of Philosophy, December, 1814, p. 431.
t Transactions of Cambridge Philosophical Society, v. 8, pp. 322-325.
¢ Philosophical Transactions Royal Society 1828, p. 298.
§ Voyages en Scandinavie, p. 537.
222 AURORA BOREALIS.
ful drawings of numerous auroras were made at both stations which clearly
established this coincidence. The parallaxes resulting from the observations
were sometimes positive and sometimes negative; the average parallax but
little exceeding one degree. These observations were regarded as demonstrating
that the average height of auroral arches is from 60 to 100 miles above the
earth’s surface.
Some persons maintain that the small height of auroras is proved by their
being sometimes seen between the observer and a cloud, or between the observer
and a hill of moderate elevation. Cases do unquestionably cecur in which the
aurora appears to be situated between a cloud and the observer; but this appear-
ance is’ believed to result from a cirrus or cirro stratus cloud of very small
density being strongly illumined by auroral light which shines through the cloud,
so as to produce the same appearance as if the aurora prevailed on the under
side of the cloud.
Sometimes the lower extremity of an auroral streamer appears to be pro-
longed below the summit of a mountain or hill. Captain Parry states that on
one occasion he observed a bright ray of the aurora shoot Satlslen ly downward
between him and the land, which was then distant only 3,000 yards * This ap-
pearance is believed to have been an illusion. A similar phenomenon was twice
noticed by the French observers at Bossekop, and was ascribed by them to the
reflection of the auroral light from the snow which covered the mountain.
On the whole, then, we conclude that although it is posszble the aurora may
sometimes descend nearly to the earth’s surface, there is no sufficient evidence
to prove that the true polar light has ever descended so low as the region of
ordinary clouds.
Noise of the aurora.—There is no satisfactory evidence that the aurora ever
emits any audible sound. It is a common impression, at least in high ‘latitudes,
that the aurora sometimes emits sound. This sound has been called a rustling,
hissing, whizzing. crackling noise. But Scoresby, Ross, Back, and other dis-
tinguished travellers who have spent several winters in the Arctic regions, where
auroras are seen in their greatest brilliancy, have been convinced that this supposed
rustling is a mere illusion. The observers at Bossekop never heard any noise
which they could ascribe to the aurora, although their attention was specially
directed to this subject; and they concluded that the sounds which have been
ascribed to the aurora must have been due to other causes, such as the whistling
of the wind, the whirling of the snow, the distant murmur of the sea, or the
cracking of the snow when it congeals after having been partially melted.
When we see a brilliant light shooting like a rocket across the sky, it is na-
tural to expect an accompanying sound. People generally hear what they
expect to hear. ‘Lacitus informs us that the ancient Germans heard % noise
whenever the setting sun descended into the western ocean.t
No observer has ever spoken of the interval that had elapsed between the
darting of the auroral rays and the alleged noise. But, on account of the
elevation of the aurora, this interval should bea long one. Sound requires four
minutes to travel a distance of fifty miles. It is probable, therefore, that the
sounds which have been heard during exhibitions of the aurora are to be as-
cribed to other causes than the aurora.
Diurnal periodicity of auroras —Auroras appear at all hours of the night,
but not with equal frequency. In Canada, the number of auroras increases
uninterruptedly from sunset till an hour before midnight, from which time the
number diminishes uninterruptedly till morning. At more northerly stations
in North America, auroras are most frequent at midnight; and at places still more
northerly, as far as the Arctic ocean, they appear to be most frequent an hour
* Parry’s Third Voyage, p. 61. t Tacitus Germania, c. 45, 1. 4.
AURORA BOREALIS. 223
after midnight. This is shown in the following table, in which column first
shows the hour of observation; column second shows the number of auroras
reported by Captain Lefroy for the years 1848 and 1849 at London, Kingston,
Montreal, Quebec, and Newfoundland, in latitudes from 43° to 474° *; column
third shows the number observed during the winter of 1857-’58 at Carlton Fort,
latitude 52° 52’, longitude 106° 30’ westt; column fourth shows the number
observed during the winter of 1843-44 at Lake Athabasca, latitude 58° 43/
north, longitude 143° 49’ westt; column fifth shows the number observed
during the winter of 1852-53 at Point Barrow, latitude 71° 21’ north, lon-
gitude 156° 15’ west§; and column sixth shows the sum of the numbers in the
four preceding columns. .
Hour. Canada. | Carlton Fort.| Athabasca. | Pt. Barrrow. Sum.
[pee
o [Ds TDSRS SB SCeNeB6e 25 5 le 30 61
& [Db Tite pea eee 60 13 8 56 137
“S| 5 10 Rae ek oa 124 26 14 56 220
SIRT GIs 2255 Scie = 149 35 17 60 261
I ee Se 191 41 19 77 323
Lili Tos eee ae 194 53 23 83 358
1 ie Fabs ape ee Ree 154 59 32 85 330
eT OL St 128 56 36 103 323
A WY Jao ojsjn ante 102 46 21 93 267
2 dee aee eee 81 46 18 95 240
AP BRBIs,o2)cjamicinrs deicte 49 40 13 80 182
5 Cha Soe er 24 26 12 71 133
| a ee 2 10 3 66 81
Annual periodicity of auroras.——Auroras occur in each month of the year,
but not with equal frequency. This period would be more obvious if it were
not disguised by the unequal length of the days in the different seasons. Sup-
pose the aurora occurred with equal frequency at every hour of the day and night
througkout the year, then the number of those that would be seen in winter
must be greater than the number seen in summer, because the prolonged dark-
ness permits us to see them more frequently. But,’on the contrary, we find in
the northern part of the United States more auroras recorded in summer than
in winter. This is shown in the following table, in which column second shows
the number of auroras observed at New Haven and Boston during a period of
113 years, from 1742 to 1854, according to tables recently published by the
Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences; column third shows the number of
auroras observed at the academies of the State of New York in 25 years, from
1826 to 1850;|| column fourth shows the number reported by Captain Lefroy
for the years 1848 and 1849, in Canada and Newfoundland; and column fifth
shows the sum of the numbers in the three preceding columns.
————
*N. Y. Reg. Reports, 1850, p. 292. § Phil. Trans., 1857, p. 512.
tSt. Helena Mag. Obs., v. 2, p. CX. || Hough’s N. Y. Meteorology, p. 472.
$ Lake Athabasca Obs., p. 144. i N. Y. Regents’ Report, 1850, p. 229.
294 AURORA BOREALIS.
alee New York. Canada. Sum.
Uesaiiehey saocoe Sousa cosdogaoccs. 81 76 16 173
Bebraty ..---.--2-----<-52-2-=-- 93 86 31 210
Mian elites ae eats eeicepe o> sesieeieecisee 110 106 24 240)
JAW. 2 Cane be aoo cage Soe aaueacade 104 125 3 267
IWS) BBA e Seep acoeaen ee BASSO aE 86 83 22 191
UM Coens care ok se eee eco rere 83 79 17 | 179
prlwlivae coc S220 2 ies Seas: 123 100 2) 244
A\UGUIE ESAS Coen ence as He cg cos ene 102 122 14 238
SHPIUS TM Oe Se 85 Se ss 25 Sisco tone 143 13] 19 293
October sos: 2525 ose eee ee ae 99 110 mei 236
November ess oe cess eee ee 115 74 26 Q15
DMecombereacne ose comets ce 83 60 16 159
*
If we classify the entire series of observations by seasons, we shall have in—
| Boston and | eae oe | ,
New Haven. New York. | Canada. Sum.
i
SONU? oon 25 SAonedaaaneneeeendos 300 3t4 84 698
Summoner 2 ose oe ee soci 308 301 52 661
BACT TUNES eee taylan oie S aclocgae 357 315 2 744
AVI Ip eee rao ste aie sia a ai SetS see 257 222 63 542
These observations show a decided minimum in December, and there is appa-
rently another minimum in June. ‘There are apparently two maxima—one in
April and the other in September. The slight diminution in the number of
auroras in summer as compared with the spring may be ascribed, at least in part,
to the longer continuance of daylight. If we increase the number of auroras
recorded for the month of June, in the ratio of the number of hours in the two
months upon which ordinary auroras might be seen, we shall conclude that
auroras are nearly as abundant iu June asin April. We infer, then, that there
is a very decided diminution in the frequency of auroras in December, and a
period of maximum frequency from April to September, with perhaps a slight
diminution during the intervening month of June.
Secular periodicity of auroras —The number of auroras seen on different
years is extremely variable. Sometimes, for several years, auroras are remarka-
ble for their number and magnificence, and then succeeds a barren interval
during which auroras are almost entirely forgotten.
If we compare the observations made at any one station for a long period of
years, we shall discover not merely an inequality in the number of auroras upon
successive years, but this inequality bears a strong resemblance to a secular
periodicity. ‘This is shown in a long series of observations made at Boston and
New Haven. The observations for Boston have been published by Professor
Lovering in the Memoirs of the American Academy, vol. ix, pp. 101-120. The
observations for New Haven have been recently pub!ished by the Connecticut
Acadewy of Arts and Sciences.* The combined series of observations extends
from 1742 to 1854, and embraces in the aggregate 1,222 auroras, not counting
duplicates. The tollowing table exhibits the number of auroras observed each
year at New Haven and Boston, according to this combined series of observa-
tions:
© Transactions of the Conn. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 9-172.
AURORA BOREALIS. 225
/
Summary of auroras observed at New Ilaven and Boston.
2 : : Lacs zee | [ipa
Years, | ake Years. Pak || Years. | See ears eb Se enre as pants |
RY Ee faire
1742.,|' °2 1765 7 1788 38 1811 Go Nieatesd 9
1743 2 1766 0 17389 51 JR12 0 || 1835 G
1744 0 1767 4 1790 ie 1613 0 1836 5
1745 0 1768 7 179] 12 1814 3 1837 At
1746 i 1769 ; 18 1792 6 iSi5 1 1838 39
1747 10 On id 1793 cee 8 1816 0 183 AT
1748 6 1771 15 1794 Yh 2 1817 0 184 44
1749 10 17722 ee 1795: Hit 2 1818 4 184] 42
1750 17 ie ment) 1796 0 1819 6 ind ll
1751 5 W774 | 20 1797 | 0 1220 2 || 1843 10
1752 “9 775" | 5 $798: {/-—=50 1821 | 0 || 1844 10
1753 1 1776 | 4 1799 0 1822 1 || 1845 22
1754 0 ae > aS 1800 0 1223 0 || 1846 30
1755 0 LA Sccel cask 1801 0 1824 QO}! 1847 22
1756 0 7 4 1202 Q 1824 2 1848 53
1757 6 1780 | 25 1803 5 1826 0 |; 1849 20
1758 4 Hei 7 | 95 1804 4 1827 7 || 1850 30
1759 5 1722 24 || 1805 1 1828 6 || 1851 21
1760 6 1783 22 || 1806 | 4 1829 2 1852 42
1761 5 Hiker | 1807, ca 1830 6 || 1853 22
1762 7 1785: | . 49 1808 | 0 ig31 9. |), 1854 15
1763 6 1786 | 55 1809 | 2 1832 9 i
1764 12 1787 | 47 1810 0 1833 3. ||
These numbers exhibit an increase from 1742 to 1786-’89, with certain ex-
ceptions which will be noticed hereafter. The middle of the period of maximum
abundance may be fixed at 1789, the average number of auroras for four years
amounting to 48. From this date the number declined rapidly, with slight
interruptions, to near 1820. The middle of the period of minimum frequency
may be assigned for 1816, when the average number ef auroras did not exceed
one per year. From 1827 the numbers increase, and after 1837 the number is
very remarkable, the average for five years from 1837 to 1841 being 42 per
year. ‘Then for three or four years there is a marked decline, and a subse-
quent revival, which is most decided in 1848 and 1852. Regarding this as a
single period of maximum abundance, the middle of the period occurred not far
from 1845, making thus an interval of 58 years from the maximum in 1787 to
that of 1845.
It is, then, established beyond question that during the*past century the fre-
quency of auroras in New England has been subject to an inequality bearing
considerable resemblance to an astronomical periodicity, the period being about
58 years; but to enable us to decide whether this period is uniform would re-
quire observations continued for a much longer interval of time.
For the purpose of making the comparison for a longer period, I have sought
for auroral observations from different parts of Europe. At first, I intended to
make the comparison with Boue’s catalogue,* which gives a very extensive
collection of auroras from 500 B. ©. to 1856, but after mature deliberation
decided to abandon it. This catalogue, although very extensive, is still quite
incomplete. Professor Wolf has given two supplementary cataloguest amount-
ing in the aggregate to about 1,000 auroras; and I have, myself, found a number
of cases not enumerated in ciiher catalogue. Moreover, by combining indis-
*Sitzungsberichte der Akad. der Wiss., Wien, b. 22, pp. 1-74.
t Vierteljahrs Schrift der Nat. Ges. in Zurich, 1857, pp. 83 and 401.
15 8
226 AURORA BOREALIS.
criminately in one catalogue all the auroras reported from any part of the world,
and thus incorporating occasional lists embracing, perhaps, one or two years’
observations from polar regions where auroras are seen almost every clear night,
the total number of auroras for the different years exhibits an inequality not
due to any real change in the frequency of auroras, but rather to a change in
the place of observation. I have, therefore, sought to obtain, as far as possible,
continued series of observations from single localities. In this I have been but
partially successful, but think the data are sufficient to warrant some important
conclusions. The following table embraces several such partial lists, and ex-
tends from 1685 to 1564.
The column marked 1 is taken from a catalogue of auroras seen throughout
Europe, as collected by Mairan in his Traité de Aurore Boreale, 2d ed.,
. 002-554.
The column marked 2 contains the auroras observed in Sweden, chiefly at
Upsala and Christiania, latitude 59° 52! or 54’. The observations from 1716
to 1733 are given in Mairan, p. 497.. The observations from 1739 to 1762, and
from 1546 to 1853, are from the Bulletin de Academie R. de Belgique, t. 21,
pp- 284-300; those from 1837 to 1846 are from the Memoires de l’Acad. R. de
Belgique, t. 20, p. 117; and the remaining observations are from Wolf’s Vier-
teljahrs Schrift, 1863, p. 108.
The column marked 3 contains the auroras observed at St. Petersburgh, lati-
tude 59° 56’. ‘Those from 1726 to 1739 are from Mairan, p.512. The others
have been ¢ollected from the successive volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy
at St. Petersburgh.
The column marked 4 contains a catalogue of auroras observed in different
parts of Europe, collected by Cotte, in his Memoires sur la Meteorologie, v. 1,
p. 366. an
The column marked 5 contains Dalton’s catalogue of auroras as published in
his Meteorological Essays, pp. 54-58 and 218-226. The first seven years are
for Kendall and Keswick, Scotland, latitude 54° 17/ and 54° 33/ north. The
other observations are for Great Britain generally. The numbers for 1835 and
1836 I have added from Bouée’s catalogue, in order to supply a gap in the series.
The column marked 6 contains the auroras observed at Mannheim, latitude
49° 29’, taken from Ephemerides Met. Palatinae, 1781-1792.
The column marked 7 contains observations at Dunse, Scotland, latitude
55° 47’, from Phil. Soc. Abstracts, vi, p. 291. :
The column marked 8 contains observations at Makerstoun, Scotland, lati-
tude 55° 35’, from the Edinburgh Phil. Trans., v. 19, p. 81.
AURORA BOREALIS. 927
The column marked 9 contains observations from every part of Europe, as
reported in Heis’s Wochenschrift.
i 7 ey PT | ay a a ss | Ds ees
SOM eal eee | ts | 4. Sas} Sia lieGa} Ost fee. hae. 9.
| — | — || — |
é | 4 hoes , =
| at aw g =
Year. | =. | a] | Year. Poel =O hea Meare it So) iii) se Year. | |}. B
3 | a | & || aje|e|s -|8|4 Sigleie| .
B apna it Qo le | s CN SAG | Sho baal as
S| = je, | Se | ole a|3|é @/E|/e| a] se
Seiten 144 | a | a |B: | O44 SlAalesa PSY ee EN ey ese
SS SS SS) aa ———| ——|— SS SS
1685. 1) SSE aes lye ee oO. | dd mcr |plesze=ee (20) 2]! 74) 1 Oz Re aa Cn eeeees epetens | meee TL
1686. 4 Eh 74a. BL 7G) 280) ARENA Es wel 6 ||| SeayeenlliaeE Pye Se ae i
GGO MSs See sees) 1749 14 | 46 | 30 iS eeTalee se. |. S|] 182622 S5 eg eee a een eee ae
L6Gae"= |", *2 Saif etdos so | | 4 7 1252 28)) N7Bbeeee iets Ee | 19) || Lear Ea ao ete a penne nae:
1694. . 2 | 1744. 8 | 18 |....|....|| 1786....| 40 | 16 | 21 |). 1828, ... Lita Sees Rees
1695... 4 : Sei elite see |enala 2s leo orem LON Ove 29 ni) Le2ase Saag x
1696. - A) See Aaa aie TRS 12 2S) Tee eee TONNES ie
1697. . ay Cee e Se 747 Te S8 Roe, oe ele SO eee is eal meas
TREES A Gs Oe lig oye Sil PSE) || geen eee | nae Zier
EYSC I) alle: CO) ae SIESTA i 3 Va Urb oe fie A
ERO eee lise le sai VisO:2-) 19 | 245/02. |. 1) 17OOseR Sia lfos
1704: . HG Eeeelemee ito lees! Oo Od Th. 1h 7G oh Malian ine!
ROTEL EATON T7aQeo |. 22139 |] T7O4S Se ONG i
1708... 1 5 5 Qa) 33) |e
1709... 3] 5 7 1) tne
aoe ia De Shie
itn Tee 0| o
1714.) TN Lilo.
1716...| 11 Os oul
Marae 12 Oniete 2
1718...| 27 Wa} aie
LONE |) 132 One 8
e208. | 28 BL ee
AFOT 5.) 19 Teli eay ls
72292 || 46 BPS
723 205/30) Thou
1724__.| 26 Uy at ie
1725. 4|\ 30 OFF one
1726._.| 46 Ono!
DP a6 Oolmoals
1728._.| 86 BA ia 5
D729 i 65 2 0 |. S55
1730. ..| 116 rial) Usb siseee eee ese) | ee ue
IB ME ea BY) 5 OTS SON (LS See ama ee Lage
1732. ..| 100 =e laisse | (S585 08 122134) ESSN eet
ie seep cov Field mel as oye a Pea Ha ae 30
1734.__] 38 Sao ee eI 18602 aanlees 36
ISS el eM 2), 3 leseel|) 1861. - 7 in| OS ae 35
H7Spee | 743 5) OU aTR6D. sf. =id| | Soee|ere oe 33
Soe) Apts Li Aes |(ataal ay alimetonl lacey) Regn evs tel Dee alt eG3 se = ese id aa 36
Des Sal We) eee | 1780 san Pea SEAL (0) |e | bstorer peed Se ae tall 47
al hl 27 : r Bel | ate 2 ASE NOP eee
|
A careful examination of this table will lead to conclusions similar to those
already derived from the American observations. We perceivea period of unu-
sual abundance, extending from 1830 to the present time, the maximum occur-
ring apparently from 1840 to 1845. This period was preceded by one of great
barrenness, extending from 1793 to 1826, and its middle occurred about 1812.
This period was preceded by one of great abundance, extending from 1771 to
1792, its middle occurring about 1780. This period was preceded also by one
of great barrenness except in very high latitudes, and extended from 1742 to
1770, its middle occurring about 1755. This period was preceded by another
of great abundance, extending from 1716 to 1741, its middle occurring about
1728. This period was preceded by another one of barrenness, whose middle
was not far from 1697. Combining all these results, we perceive a considerable
degree of uniformity, approximating towards a period of fifty-nine years from
one maximum to another.
At the same time we cannot overlook the considerable exceptions to this
rule; and these exceptions seem to point to a subordinate period of ten years.
Tn each of the preceding lists we notice this alternation of meagre and abundant
years, and the intervals do not generally differ much from ten years. The fol-
228 AURORA BOREALIS.
lowing table shows the dates of these periods of maximum and of minimum
4 ©
frequency, as far as they can be gathered from the American and European
observations independently : \
' ‘ ‘ ' ‘ ‘
3) 1s 2 ZV hn 2 HS) af
on on on om om on
=e == qs ae | as SEs
S.m es 2.5 oS + oS. CS ems
a3 He Wve) 28 SS) | pees
a @ P | ere cP oe oF
BD ES =O AO || =o ES
ia m | = 72) 5 Rn = na | i] na < mM
—_—_— { _ |
| | |
Maximum-| 1707 Maximum , 1760 | 1760 Maximum .| 1819 | 1818-9
Minimum -| 1713 Minimum -;. 1766 | 1766 || Minimum -| 1823 1823-4
Maximum.| 1718 Maximum} 1771 | 1769-71) Maximum -| 1830 1827-8
Minimum _| 1721 | Minimum .| 1776 | 1776 Minimum -} 1834 1832
Maximum.| 1730 | Maximum -| 1779 | 1780 ‘|| Maximum -| 1840 1839
Minimum -} 1732 |Minimum -| 1784 | 1784 Minimum -} 1843-5 | 1843
Maximum.| 1741 |Maximum-| 1788 | 1789 ‘|| Maximum .! 1849 1848
Minimum _| 1745-6) 1744-5|Minimum .| 1798 | 1798-9 | Minimum -| 1856
Maximum.| 1750 1750 || Maximum .| 1804 | 1804-5 || Maximum -} 1859-64
Minimum -| 1735 1755 | Minimum -} i811 | 1811
! i
Tt will be observed that the two series of observations accord pretty well
with each other, and they show a mean interval of eleven years between the
successive maxima. It should be remarked, however, that from 1792 to 1802
the number of observed auroras is small, and there is an appearance of another
maximum in 1797. If we count this as a period of maximum abundance, then
the mean interval between the successive maxima will be reduced to ten years,
and the evidence at present appears to be in favor of this conclusion. Thus the
observations of the aurora seem to indicate a maximum every ten years, and a
maximum maximorum every fifty-nine or perhaps sixty years. If any doubt
should still remain whether this phenomenon exhibits a true astronomical pe-
riodicity, it will probably be removed when we discover its connexion with the
movements of the magnetic needle.
Disturbance of the magnetic needle—The aurora is ordinarily accompanied
by a considerable disturbance of the magnetic needle. This magnetic influence
of the aurora has been known for more than a hundred years, and within the
last thirty years it has been studied with great care. When an aurora consists
merely of a bank of light like the dawn, and rises but little above the horizon,
the disturbance of the magnetic needle is slight, while the effect increases with
the brilliancy and extent of the aurora. Auroral beams generally cause a
disturbance of the needle, particularly when the beams themselves are in
active motion. Auroral waves or flashes, especially if they extend to the zenith,
cause a violent agitation of the needle, consisting of an irregular oscillation on
each side of its mean position. During the aurora of September 2, 1859, the
entire range of the needle at Toronto was 3° 45’, and at Rome was 4° 13’.
These extraordiary deflections of the needle prevail almost simultaneously
over large portions of the globe, even where the aurora itself is not visible; and
they have been termed, by Baron Humboldt, magnetic hurricanes. On the 25th
of September, 1841, an extraordinary disturbance of the magnetic instruments
was observed at Greenwich. This disturbance affected both the direction and
intensity of the magnetic needle. The changes in the direction of the needle
were by sudden impulses; after each impulse the needle was stationary for a
few seconds, then it was jerked to another position and was again stationary.*
On the same day a remarkable disturbance of the magnetic instruments was
* Greenwich Magnetic Observations, 1841, p. 48. London and Edinburgh Philosophical
Magazine, December, 1841, p. 605.
a
AURORA BOREALIS. 229
observed at Toronto, distant from Greenwich more than 3,500 miles. The
disturbances at Toronto commenced at nearly the same absolute time as at
Greenwich, and they were generally simultaneous at both stations. The same
extraordinary disturbance was noticed at St. Helena, distant from London 4,800
miles, and from Toronto 6,000 miles. A similar disturbance occurred at the
Cape of Good Hope, still more distant, and also at Trevandrum, in India, which
is almost diametrically opposite to Toronto. This phenomenon was noticed
simultaneously over an entire hemisphere, and, not improbably, was sensible at
every point of the earth’s surface.
At the same time there occurred an auroral display of unusual extent. An
aurora was observed throughout Canada and the northern parts of the United
States,* as well as in England and Norway, and also in the southern hemi-
sphere, at Van Dieman’s Island.
During the great auroral display of September 2, 1859, the disturbances of
the magnetic needle were still more remarkable throughout North America,
Europe, and northern Asia, as well as in New Holland. At Toronto the de-
clination of the needle changed 3° 45’ in half an hour. ‘The inclination was
observed to change 2° 49! w vhen the needle passed beyond the limits of the
scale, so that the entire range of the needle could not be determined. The
horizontal force was observed to change to the extent of one-ninth of its whole
value when the needle passed bey ond the limits of the seale, so that its entire
range could not be determined.t
At Rome, September 2, at 7" 10™ a. m., the declinometer pointed 2° 50’ to
the west of its ordinary position. After this the needle returned rapidly to the
east, and at 7" 30™ pointed 1° 23’ east of its mean position, thus describing an
are of 4° 13/ in one-third of an hour. The bifilar indicated a diminution of the
horizontal component amounting to about Onan of its mean value f
At Paris the magnetic instr uments were 2 very much disturbed, and were car-
ried beyond the range of their scales, so that the extreme range could not be
determined.§
At St. Petersburg the declination of the needle changed 4° 24’ when the
needle passed beyond the range of its scale, so that the entire range could not
be determined. For a similar reason the entire change of the horizontal inten-
sity could not be determined.||
At Christiania the variation of the horizontal intensity amounted to nearly
one-thirteenth of its whole value.{]
At Melbourne, Australia, at the same time the magnetic instruments were
very much disturbed, the range of the declination being 1° 9’, and that of the
horizontal intensity one-thirtieth of its whole value.**
In the volume of the Greenwich Magnetical and Meteorological Observations
for 1862, Professor Airy has given an abstract of the magnetic observations
from 1841 to 1857, made on days of great magnetic disturbance.
The magnetic force of the earth is resolved into forces acting in the direction
of three rectangular axes ; two of which lie in a horizontal plane, one pointing
north and south, the other east and west, while the third axis has a vertical posi-
tion. From Professor Airy’s abstract, it appears that out of 170 magnetic
storms observed at Greenwich in seventeen years, 63 per cent. of the whole
number began with westerly force +; and 60 per cent. ended with Were
foree +. Of the whole numVer, 66 per cent. Jegan with northerly foree —
* Hough’s N. Y. Met., p. 480.
+t American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 28, p. 390.
¢ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 29, p. 397.
§ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 29, p- 391.
|| American Journal of Science, Taree avis 30, p- 80.
4] American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 29, p. 387.
** American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 8.
*
230 AURORA BOREALIS.
and 91 per cent. ended with northerly foree —. The disturbance in a vertical
direction was sometimes positive and sometimes negative, with about equal fre-
quency.
The following table presents a summary of the results for twenty cases of the
most remarkable disturbance, including all the cases in- which the mean dis-
turbance of the declination magnet amounted to fourteen minutes. In the
column headed “ declination magnet,” the plus sign shows when the western
declination was greater than the mean, and the minus sign when it wag /ess
than the mean. In the two columns headed “horizontal force” and “ vertical
force magnet,” the plus sign shows when the force was greater than the mean,
' and the minus sign when it was less than the mean.
In order to reduce the table to convenient limits, the numerical values of
several of the changes are not given; but the direction and number of the
changes are indicated by the repetition of the signs +, —, +4, ete.
231
AURORA BOREALIS.
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AURORA BOREALIS. 233
These irregular deflections of the magnetic needle do not oceur everywhere
simultaneously. From a comparison of a very large number of observations
made in the years 1836 to 1841, at twenty-seven stations scattered over Europe
from latitude 45° to 60° N, I have discovered that they are propagated over
the surface of Europe in a direction from N. 28° E. to S. 28° W., at the rate of
about 100 miles per minute.* From a similar comparison of observations made
at Washington, Philadelphia, Cambridge, and ‘Toronto in the years 1840 to
1842, I have discovered that in North America those irregular deflections of
the magnetic needle are propagated in a direction from N. 68° E. to $. 68° W.,
at the rate of about 100 miles per ‘minute.t Mr. C. V. Walker has determined
that the direction of this motion in England was from N. 42° E. to 8. 42° W.
Influence of the aurora upon the telegraph wires.—Auroras exert a remarka-
ble influence upon the wires of the electric telegraph. During the prevalence of
brilliant auroras the telegraph lines generally become unmanageable. The
aurora develops electric currents upon the wires, and hence results a motion of
the telegraph instruments similar to that which is employed in telegraphing;
and this movement being frequent and irregular, ordinarily renders it impossible
to transmit intelligible signals. During the aurora of September 2, 1859, the
currents of electricity on the telegraph wires of the United States were so steady
and powerful that, on several lines, the operators succeeded in using them for
telegraph purposes as a substitute for the battery; that is, telegraph messages
were transmitted from the auroral influence alone, without the use of any vol-
taic battery.{ This result clearly proves that the aurora develops on the tele-
graph wires an electric current similar to that of a voltaic battery, and differing.
only in its variable intensity.
hese electric currents during the auroras of August 29 and September 2,
1859, moved alternately to and fro over the earth’s surface, their average direc-
tion being probably from about N. 45° E. to 8. 45° W.
Similar effects were noticed upon the telegraph lines of Europe. Jn Switzer-
land the intensity of the currents was measured by a galvanometer, and was
found to be three-fold the ordinary current employed in telegraphing. Two
currents were found to succeed each other, having a general direction nearly
along a meridian line; the one proceeding from north to south having a double
intensity and a double duration, the other proceeding from south to north hav-
ing a less intensity and a less duration.
From careful observations of galvanometers upon the telegraph lines of Eng-
land during the auroras of August 29 and September 2, Mr. C. V. Walker dis-
covered that there was a stream of electricity of indefinite width drifting across
the country, moving to and fro along a line directed from N. 42° E. toS
42° W.
THEORY OF THE POLAR LIGHT.
1. Some have ascribed the polar light to a rare nebulous matter occupying
the interplanetary spaces, and revolving round the sun at such a distance that
a portion of this matter occasionally falls into the upper regions of the atmo-
sphere with a velocity sufficient to render it luminous, from the condensation of
the air before it. But we can see no reason why matter, reaching the earth
from such a source, should be confined to certain districts of the earth, and be
wholly unknown in other portions. During a single month, or possibly an en-
tire year, the fall of such matter might be limited to certain parts of the earth ;
but that certain portions of the earth should @/ways be exempt from such visits
while other portions receive them uninterruptedly from night to night, is quite
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 334.
t American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 34, p. 38.
} American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 29, pp. 92-97.
e
Tae AURORA BOREALIS,
incredible. Now we have found that, throughout a large portion of the torrid
zone, auroras have never been known to occur; while throughout a zone, sur-
rounding the magnetic pole they are seen almost uninterruptedly during the
period that the sun’s hght does not obscure them from our view. ‘The aurora,
then, does not result from nebulous matter encountered by the earth in its pro-
gress round the sun.
2 Auroral exhibitions take place in the upper regions of the atmosphere,
and partake of the earth’s rotation. All the celestial bodies have an apparent
motion arising from the rotation of the earth; but bodies belonging to the earth,
including the atmosphere and the clouds which float in it, partake of this rota-
tion, so that their relative position is not affected by it. ‘he same is true of
the aurora. Whenever a corona is formed, it maintains sensibly the same posi-
tion in the heavens during the whole period of its continuance, although the
stars meanwhile revolve at the rate of 159 per hour. Auroral exhibitions are
therefore to be regarded as terrestrial phenomena.
3. The light of the aurora is caused by the movement of atmospheric elec-
tricity. ‘This is proved by its effect upon the telegraph wires. ‘The electric
telegraph is worked by a current of electricity generated by a battery, and flow-
ing along the conducting wire which unites the distant stations. ‘This current
flowing round an electro-magnet renders it temporarily magnetic, so that its
armaiure is attracted, and a mark is made upon a roll of paper. During a
thunder-storm the electricity of the atmosphere affects the conducting wire in a
similar manner, so as to set in motion the recording pen in the telegraph office ;
and thus, during a thunder-storm, telegraphing generally becomes quite impossi-
ble. A similar effect is produced by the presence of an’ aurora. During the
great aurora of November 17, 1848, the electro-magnets of the telegraph lines
were rendered magnetic, even when no voltaic battery was attached to them, so
that, for three hours, communication by telegraph was rendered impracticable.*
During the aurora of September 2, 1859, the aurora caused so strong and
steady a current of electricity on the telegraph wires, that it was possible to
transmit telegraph messages by the use of this current without any: voltaic
battery whatever. During this aurora there were remarked all those classes of
effects which are considered as characteristic of electricity.
A. In passing from one conductor to another, electricity exhibits a spark of
light. Duting the auroras of August 28 and September 2, 1859, brilliant sparks
were drawn trom the telegraph wires, even when no battery was attached. At
Springfield, Massachusetts, a flash was seen about ha'f the size of an ordinary
jet of gas. At Boston, Massachusetts, a flame of fire followed the pen of Bain’s
chemical telegraph. At Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, streams of fire were seen
when the telegraph circuit was broken. At Washington, D. C., a spark of fire
jumped from the forehead of a telegraph operator when his forehead touched a
ground-wire. Bright sparks were noticed on the conductors of the telegraph
lines to Bordeaux, in France. On the telegraph lines of Norway sparks and
uninterrupted discharges were observed.t
B. In passing through poor conductors electricity develops heat. During
the auroras of August 28 and September 2, paper and even wood were set on
fire by the auroral influence alone. At Boston, Massachusetts, a flame of fire
burned through a dozen thicknesses of paper. ‘The paper was set on fire and
produced considerable smoke. At Springfield, Massachusetts, the heat was
sufficient to cause the smell of scorched wood and paint to be plainly percepti-
ble. At Pittsburg. Pennsylvania, the magnetic helices became so hot that the
hand could not be kept on them. On the telegraph lines of Norway, pieces of
paper were set on fire by the sparks of the discharges from the wires, and the
= +
* De La Rive’s Elec., v. 3, p. 287.
+ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 323.
AURORA BOREALIS. 335
current was at times so strong that it was necessary to connect the lines with
the earth in order to save the apparatus from destruction.*
C. When passed through the animal system, electricity communicates a
shock which is quite peculiar and characteristic. During the auroras of August
28 and September 2, some of the telegraph operators received severe shocks
when they touched the telegraph wires. At Philadelphia the current gave a
severe shock. At Washington, D. C., the telegraph operator received a severe
shock, which stunned him for an instant.t
D. A current of electricity develops magnetism in ferruginous bodies. 'The
aurora of September 2 developed magnetism so abundantly and so steadily that,
on several lines, it was used as a substitute for a voltaic battery in the ordinary
business of telegraphing. ‘The intensity of this effect was estimated to have
been at times equal to that of 200 cups of Grove’s battery upon a line 230 miles
in length. In Switzerland the currents were at least three-fold the ordinary
current employed in telegraphing.+
E. A current of electricity deflects a magnetic needle from its normal position.
In England the usual telegraph signal is made by a magnetic needle surrounded
by a coil of copper wire, so that the needle is deflected by an electric current
flowing through the wire. Similar deflections were caused by the auroras of
August 29 and September 2, and these deflections were frequently greater than
those produced by the telegraph batteries.§
¥. A current of electricity produces chemical decompositions. During the
display of September 2 the auroral influence produced the same marks upon
chemical paper as are produced by an ordinary voltaic battery ; that is, the
auroral influence decomposed a chemical compound, the cyanide of potassium.
'The same effect was produced by the aurora of February 19, 1852.||
G. Certain bodies, such as fluor spar, the solution of sulphate of quinine, and
several vegetable infusions possess the remarkable property of so dispersing
some part of the light passing through them that the course of the luminous
rays become visible, as though the body were self-luminous. This phenomenon
has been termed fluorescence. ‘This fluorescence is produced ina very remarka-
ble degree by the light of an electric discharge, and the same effect is found to
be produced by the light of the aurora. On the 14th of March, 1858, during
the exhibition of a brilliant aurora, Professor Robinson, of Armagh observatory,
found that a drop of disulphate of quinine on a porcelain tablet seemed like a
luminous patch on a faint ground; and crystals of platino-cyanide of potassium
were so bright that the label on the tube which contained them (and which by
lamplight could not be distinguished from the salt at a little distanee) seemed
almost black by contrast. 'These effects were so strong in relation to the actual
intensity of the light that they appeared to attord additional evidence of the
electric character of the aurora.{[
The preceding facts are regarded as proving, conclusively, that the fluid de-
veloped by the aurora on the telegraph wires is indeed electricity. This elec-
tricity may be supposed to be derived from the aurora either by transfer or by
induction. 1f we adopt the former supposition, then the auroral light is cer-
tainly electric light. If we adopt the latter supposition, then we must inquire
what known agent is capable of inducing electricity in a distant conductor.
We know of but two such agents—magnetism and electricity. But the auroral
fluid is luminous, while magnetism is not luminous. We seem, then, compelled
to admit that the auroral light is electric light.
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 323.
t American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 323.
{ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 324.
§ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 324.
|| American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 324.
4] Lond. Ed. and Dub. Phil. Mag., v. 15, 4th ser., p. 326.
236 AURORA BOREALIS.
4. The colers of the aurora are the same as those of ordinary electricity
passed through rarefied air. When a spark is drawn from an ordinary ¢lec-
trical machine, in air of the usual density, the light is intense and nearly white.
If the electricity be passed through a glass vessel in which the air has been
putially rarefied, the light is more diffuse, and inclines to a delicate rosy hue.
If the air be still further rarefied, the light becomes very diffuse; it flows readily
usonen a great distance, and its color becomes a deep rose or purple. ‘The
same variety of colors is observed during the aurora. The transition from a
white or pale straw color to a rosy Bee and finally to a deep red, depends,
probably, upon the height above the earth and upon the amount of condensed
Vapor present in the air.
‘The emerald green light which is seen in some auroras, is thought to be due
to the projection of the yellow light of the aurora upon the blue sky ; for a com-
bination of yellow and blue light always produces green. So also during the
evening twilight there is frequently a brief period when the western sky exhi-
bits a delicate shade of green. This is caused by a combination of the yellow
light of the sun with the blue of the celestial vault. If this explanation should
not seem to account for the intensity of the green light which has been noticed
in some auroras, the difference may perhaps be ascribed to that well-established
physiological principle that when two complementary colors are placed near
each other, each color appears more brilliant by contrast with its complementary
color.
The formation of an auroral corona near the magnetic zenith is the effect
of perspective, resulting from a great number of luminous beams all parallel to
each other. A collection of beams parallel to the direction of the dipping
needle would all appear to converge towards the pole of the needle, as is actu-
ally observed; and no other supposition will explain all the appearances. Each
observer, therefore, sees the auroral crown in his magnetic zenith, and it is not
the same crown which is seen at different places, any more than it is the same
rainbow which is seen by different observers.
6. The auroral beams are simply illumined spaces, caused by the flow of a
stream of electricity through the upper regions of the atmosphere. During the
aurora of August 28, 1859, these beams were nearly 500 miles in length, and
their lower extremities were elevated about 45 miles above the earth’s surface.
Their tops inclined towards the south ; the angle with the vertical at New York
amounting to 17°. When electricity flows through good conductors, it emits
no light. Dry air of the ordinary density is a non-conductor of electricity ; but
water is a conductor, and so is rarefied air. When electricity forces its way
through dry air of common density, it exhibits a brilliant spark. Through
rarefied air electricity passes with less resistance to a much greater distance,
and with a pale diffuse light.
It was formerly supposed that the electric current necessarily moved in the
direction of the axis of the auroral beams; that is, that the electric discharge
was between the upper regions of the atmosphere and the earth or the lower
regions of the atmosphere. But recent discoveries throw some doubt upon this
conclusion. When a current of electricity flows through a vessel from which
the air is almost wholly exhausted, under certain circumstances the light is not
uniformly diffused through the vessel, but becomes stratified, exhibiting alter-
nately bright and dark bands crossing the electric current at right angles.
From this experiment it might be inferred that electricity flowing horizontally
through the upper regicns of the atmosphere might exhibit alternately brigut
and dark bands, having a position nearly vertical like the auroral beams. but
this stratification of the electric light is generally ascribed to tntermiétences in
the intensity of the electric discharge, and it does not seem probable that such
intermittences could take place in nature with sufficient rapidity to produce a
similar effect. It seems, therefore, more probable that auroral beams are the
AURORA BOREALIS. Fat
result of a current of electricity travelling in the direction of the axis of the
pee ’
The slaty appearance of the sky, which is remarked in all great auroral
sahividents arises from the condensation of the vapor of the air; and this con-
densed vapor probably exists in the form of minute spiculee of icé or flakes’ of
snow. Inthe Arctic regions fine flakes of snow have been repeatedly observed
to fall during the exhibition of auroras, and this snow only slightly impairs the
transparency of the atmosphere, without presenting the appearance of clouds.*
The presence of these minute flakes of snow produces that turbid appearance of
the atmosphere which invariably attends bright auroras, and causes that dark
bank or segment which in the United States rests on the northern horizon.
This turbidness is more noticeable near the horizon than it is at great elevations,
because near the horizon the line of vision traverses a greater depth of this hazy
atmosphere, while the effect is increased by contrast with the light above it.
When the aurora covers the whole heavens, as in the neighborhood of Hudson’s
bay, the entire atmosphere is filled with this haze; and if the aurora goes far
beyond the zenith of the observer towards the south, he sees for the same rea-
son a dark segment resting on the southern horizon.
8. What is the source of the electricity of the atmosphere ?—Philosophers are
by no means agreed as to the origin of atmospheric electricity. It has been
ascribed successively to friction, combustion, and vegetation, but these causes
seem entirely inadequate to account for the enormous quantities of electricity
sometimes present in the atmosphere.
Evaporation is probably the principal source of atmospheric electricity. The
following experiment shows the production of electricity by evaporation. If
upon the top of a gold leaf electrometer we place a metallic vessel containing
salt water, and drop into the water a heated pebble, the leaves of the electrometer
will diverge. ‘The vapor which rises from the water is charged with positive
electricity, while the water retains negative electricity. The water used in this
experiment must not be perfectly pure, but must contain a little salt or some
foreign matter. ‘The evaporation of the water of the ocean must, therefore. fur-
nish a large amount of electricity; and fresh water must also furnish some elee-
tricity, for the water of the earth is never entirely pure. The vapor that rises
from the sea, therefore, constantly carries away positive electricity, while the
solid part of the earth must be charged with negative electricity.
9. ‘The vapor which rises from the ocean in all latitudes, but most abundantly
in the equatorial regions of the earth, carries into the upper regions of the
atmosphere a considerable quantity of positive electricity, while the negative
electricity remains in the earth. This positive electricity, after rising more or
less vertically with the ascending currents of the atmosphere, would be ¢ conveyed
towards either pole by the tropical current of the upper regions of the atmos-
phere. This tropical current, setting out from the equator where it occupies the
most elevated regions of the atmosphere, descends in proportion as it advances
towards the higher latitudes, until in the neighborhood of the poles, where it
approaches the “earth’s surface.
The earth and the rarefied air of the elevated atmospheric regions may be
regarded as forming the two conducting plates of a condenser, of which the
insulating stratum is the inferior portion of the atmos phere. ‘The two opposite
electricities must then be condensed by their mutual influence in those portions \
of the atmosphere and of the earth to which they are nearest; that is, in the
regions near the poles, and there neutralize themselves in the form of dis-
charges whenever their tension reaches a certain limit. When the air is
humid, it becomes a partial conductor between the upper regions of the atmos-
phere and the earth, by which means a portion of the electricity of the atmos-
* Franklin’s First Expedition, pp. 583 and 600.
238 AURORA BOREALIS.
phere is conveyed to the earth. On account of the low conducting power of the
medium, the neutralization of the opposite electricities would not be effected
instantaneously, but by successive discharges, more or less continuous, and va-
riable in intensity. ‘These discharges should take place almost simultaneously
at the two poles, since the electric tension of the earth should be nearly the
same at each pole.
Figure 5 represents the system of circulation here supposed, the north and
south poles of the earth being denoted by the letters N. and S.; and this, as I
understand it, is substantially “the theory of Professor De la Rive.
10. When electricity from the upper regions of the atmosphere discharges
itself to the earth through an imperfectly conducting medium, the flow could
not be everywhere uniform, but would take place chiefly along certain lines
where the resistance was least; and if the air be sufticiently rare, this current
must develop light, forming thus an auroral beam. It might be supposed that
these beams must neces sarily. have a vertical position, but their position is con-
trolled by the earth’s magnetism. Professor Plucker, of Bonn, has shown that
‘‘when magnetic forces act upon a perfectly flexible conductor through which
an. eleetrie current passes, e quilibrium can only exist when the conductor
assumes the form of a magnetic curve.”* Now, the axis of the dipping needle at
any point on the surface of the earth lies in the magnetic curve passing through
that point. Hence the axis of an auroral streamer must lie in the magnetic
curve which passes through its base.
During the prevalence of a brilliant aurora the inclination of the needle some-
times changes to the extent of two or three degrees. - Hence the auroral
streamers cannot always preserve the same position, but their average inclina-
tion should not differ much from the mean dip of the magnetic needle. Hence
results an apparent convergence of all the beams towards the magnetic zenith,
forming tbe auroral corona.
ital: iene arches assume a position at right angles to the magnetic meridian,
in consequence of the influence of the earth’s magnetism. Auroral arches gen-
erally consist of a collection of auroral beams all ne arly parallel to each other.
These beams tend to arrange themselves upon a curve which is perpendicular
to the magnetic meridian, forming thus a ring about the magnetic pole. The
same law has been discovered to hold true for a stream of electricity under the
influence of an artificial magnet. When electricity escapes from a metallic con-
ductor under a receiver from which the air has been exhausted, it escapes in
streams of diffuse rosy light which appear to diverge from the conductor. But
Professor De la Rive has shown that if this conductor be the pole of a powerful
magnet, the electric light forms a complete luminous ring around this conductor,
‘and this ring has a movement of rotation around the pole of the magnet, some-
times in one direction and sometimes in another, according to the direction uf
the discharge and the direction of the magnetization.t
A similar effect takes place on a grand scale during auroral exhibitions. The
auroral arch is a part of a luminous ring sustained everywhere at about the same
elevation above the earth, having the north magnetic pole for its centre, and
cutting all the magnetic meridians at right angles. The influence of the north
magnetic pole of the earth determines this position, as the pole of an artificial
magnet determines the electricity which escapes from it to assume the form
of a ring.
12. We have found that auroral arches are not always exactly perpendicular
to the magnetic meridian, and that in some places this deviation is pretty uni-
form and is considerable in amount. At Bossekop (latitude 70°) the average
deviation is 10° towards the west of the magnetic meridian. We can aseribe
*Lond. Ed, and Dub. Phil. Mag., 4th ser., v. 18, p. 2.
t De la Rive’s Elec., vol. 2, p. 248; ” and Lond. Ed. ie Dub. Phil. Mag., June, 1862, p. 2.
AURORA BOREALIS. 939
occasional deviations of two or three degrees to the changes in the position of
the magnetic needle which are observed during great auroral exhibitions; but
permanent deviations, indicate the operation of some constant cause. The fol-
lowing is substantially the explanation suggested by M. Bravais.* The direction
of the magnetic needle at any place is determined mainly by its position with
respect to the magnetic poles of the earth, but partly by local causes, such as
the conformation of the land and sea, the structure of the earth in that vicin-
ity, &c. In consequence of these local causes, the direction of the magnetic
needle at some places differs several degrees from what it would be if it were
controlled entirely by the magnetic poles. Now this local and disturbing influ-
ence probably diminishes as we rise above the earth’s surface, so that at the
height of one or two hundred miles the direction of the magnetic needle may
differ several degrees from that at the surface of the earth. In northern Europe
the north end of the magnetic needle points several degrees more easterly than
it should if the magnetic meridians were entirely symmetrical. Hence it seems
not improbable that in this region the declination of the magnetic needle
increases as we rise above the earth’s surface at the rate of one degree to about
ten miles’ deviation, and this supposition will reconcile our theory with the
observations.
13. The flashes of light so frequently observed in great auroral displays are
due to ¢nequalities in the motion of the electric currents. In consequence of the
imperfect conducting power of the medium through which it passes, the flow of
electricity through the upper regions of the air is not perfectly uniform. It
experiences more or less resistance to its motion, and hence escapes through the
air by paroxysms. The flashes of the aurora are therefore feeble flashes of
lightning.
.14. Cause of the magnetic disturbances ——The disturbance of the magnetic
needle during an aurora is due to the currents of electricity flowing through
the atmosphere or through the earth. A magnetic needle is deflected from its
mean position by an electric current flowing near it through a good conductor,
like a copper wire. A stream of electricity flowing through the earth or the
atmosphere must produce a similar effect.. The direction in which the magnet
is deflected may always be known from the rule given. by Ampere: “If you
conceive yourself lying in the direction of the current, the stream of positive
electricity flowing through your head towards your feet, with the north pole of
the magnet before you, the north pole will always be deviated toward the right.”
It is probable that the directive power of the magnetic needle is due to elec-
tric currents circulating round the globe from east to west. If there were such
electric currents circulating round the globe in planes parallel to the magnetic
equator, the effect of such currents would be everywhere to cause the magnetic
needle to assume a position corresponding very nearly with what is actually
observed. M. Lamont, of Munich, thinks he has proved, by direct observation,
the existence of such currents constantly circulating from east to west, over the
surface of the earth.t
According to the theory of Professor De la Rive, already explained, there
is a general system of circulation of positive electricity from the equator towards
either pole, through the upper regions of the atmosphere; in the higher lati-
tudes this positive electricity makes its way to the earth, and it travels
thence towards the equator to restore the equilibrium which is continually dis-
turbed by evaporation from the waters of the equatorial seas. This current
through the earth from the north polar regions southward, must modify the reg-
ular current of electricity which we suppose is constantly circulating from east
to west. Hence during the period of great auroralgdisplays we should expect a
* Voyages en Scandinavie, p. 458.
t Bib. Univ. de Genéve, 1861, v. 12, p. 357.
240 , AURORA BOREALIS.
current from the northeast to the southwest, and such a current has been posi-
tively indicated in a most decisive manner—
1. By observations on the telegraph lines of England with a galvanometer
needle.*
2. By observations on the telegraph lines of the United States and other
countries.t ,
3. By simultaneous observations of the magnetic declination made in 1836 to
1841 at numerous stations scattered over Europe.t
4. By similar observations at several stations in North America, made from
1840 to 1842.
This current of electricity does not, however, flow steadily and uninterrupt-
edly from nertheast to southwest, but alternates at short intervals with a cur-
rent in the contrary direction. This fact was distinctly noticed in September,
1859, upon the telegraph lines of the United States. It was also distinctly
observed and measured upon the telegraph lines in Switzerland, where a north-
erly current continued for two or three minutes and then slowly declined, when
it was succeeded by a southerly current of less intensity, which continued for
sixty or ninety seconds and then declined, to be sueceeded by another current
from the north—the northerly current having a double intensity and a double
duration ; the other, proceeding from south to north, having a less intensity and
a less duration.||
In England, the northerly currents are also generally strongerhan the south-
erly, and they continue for a longer time, but the difference js less than was
observed in Switzerland.]
Such currents of electricity must produce a continual disturbance of the mag-
netic needle, and they seem suflicient to account for the disturbances actually
observed. Mr. C. V. Walker has compared magnetic observations made at
Greenwich and Kew, and has discovered that the deflections of the magnets
there observed were such as should be produced by the electric currents ob-
served on the telegraph wires.**
15. Lifect of the aurora upon telegraph wires—The eftect of the aurora upon
the telegraph wires is similar to that of electricity in thunder-storms, except in
the intensity and steadiness of its action. During thunder-storms the elec-
tricity of the wires is discharged instantly with a flash of lightning, while during
auroras there is sometimes a steady flow for a few minutes, which may even be
employed as a substitute for the voltaic battery, in transmitting telegraph
messages,
16. The geographical distribution of auroras—TVhe geographical distribu-
tion of auroras appears to depend chiefly upon the relative imteusity of the
earth’s magnetism in different latitudes. ‘The circumstances favorable to a
grand display of the auroras appear to be—1. The upper portion of the atmo-
sphere must be highly charged with electricity. 2. The atmosphere must be
filled with particles of condensed vapor, probably in the form of minute crystals
of ice. 3. This condensed vapor must form an imperfect conductor of great
extent, for the passage of the electricity from one portion of the heavens to
another, and from the upper atmosphere to the earth. According to the experi-
ments of De la Rive with artificial magnets, the electric light should be most
noticeable in the neighborhood of the magnetic pole, but not directly over the
pole, since the electric light tends to form a ring around the pole, and at some
*London Phil. Trans. 1861, p. 106.
t American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 325.
¢ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 334.
§ Ibid., v. 34, p. 39.
|| Comptes Rendus, t. 49, p. 662.
4 Lond. Phil. Trans. 1861, pp. 128, 129.
“A Tbid pp: Lit, ae:
AURORA BOREALIS. 241
distance from it.* Auroras are therefore most abundant along a certain zone
which follows nearly a magnetic parallel, being everywhere nearly at right
angles to the magnetic meridian of the place.
17. Why auroras do not occur within the tropics—Auroras do not prevail
within the tropics, on account of the high intensity of the electricity, combined
with the high temperature of the lower atmosphere. By the rapid evaporation
within the tropics a vast amount of electricity is daily elevated into the air;
but on account of the general dryness of the air this electricity is to a great extent
insulated, and cannot flow back again to the earth. Whenever there is a general
condensation of the vapor of the air, the precipitation is copious on account of
the large supply of vapor, and dense clouds are formed which are pretty good
conductors of electricity. The electricity thus accummulates and acquires great
intensity, moving with explosive violence in thunder-showers, instead of the
slow and silent discharges of the aurora.
By an extensive comparison of observations,t I have determined that—
Between latitude 0° and latitude 30° the average number of thunder-storms annually is 52
Between latitude 30° and latitude 50° the average number of thunder-storms annually is 20
Between latitude 50° and latitude 60° the average number of thunder-storms annually is 15
Between latitude 60° and latitude 70° the average number of thunder-storms annually is 4
Braye! letninate PAD ORES BERS BEE Se RRS ae cco sbon caacuone nace Bab eO Be OErE 0
Thus we see that atmospheric electricity is most abundant in the equatorial
regions, where the causes which develop it are the most active; and as we
recede from the equator, thunder-storms diminish in frequency, while auroras in-
crease in frequency, because circumstances favor a slow and quiet rather than a
rapid and violent discharge. The aurora and lightning differ, then, chiefly in
the mode of discharge of electricity from the atmosphere to the earth.
18. Cause of the diurnal inequality in the frequency of auroras —The diur-
nal inequality in the frequency of auroras is probably due to the same causes as
the diurnal variation in the intensity of atmospheric electricity. The intensity
of atmospheric electricity is found to vary with the hour of the day. From the
mean of three years’ observations made at London, it appears that at 4 a. m.
the electric tension is represented by 20 on Volta’s electrometer; from this
hour the electricity increases to 10 a. m., when it is represented by 88; from
that time it decreases to 4 p. m., when it is represented by 69; it then inereases
to 10 p. m., when it is represented by 104; from which time it decreases till
4a.m.; that is, there are two daily maxima of intensity and two daily minima.
The variations in the intensity of atmospheric electricity are to be ascribed
partly to real changes in the amount of electricity present in the air, and partly
to variations in the conducting power of the air. Just before sunrise the elec-
tricity has a feeble intensity, because the moisture of the preceding night has
transmitted to the earth a portion of the electricity which was previously present
in the air. After the sun rises new vapor ascends, and carries with it positive
electricity, and the amount of electricity in the air increases. Towards noon the
air becomes dry, and transmits less readily the electricity accumulated in the
upper regions of the atmosphere; so that, although the amount of electricity in
the air is continually increasing, an electrometer near the earth’s surface indi-
cates an apparent diminution. ‘Towards evening the air grows cool, again be-
comes humid, and transmits more readily to the earth the electricity accumulated
in the upper regions of the atmosphere. The effect produced upon an elec-
trometer, therefore, increases until some hours after sunset; but since during the
night there is a constant discharge of electricity from the air to the earth, the
* De la Rive’s Elec., v. 2, p. 248.
+ American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 30, p. 97.
} Report British Assoc. 1849, pp. 117-191.
242 AURORA BOREALIS.
electrometer soon indicates a diminished ihtensity, which continues until towards
morning.
The same causes which favor the escape of electricity from the upper atmos-
phere to the earth will produce an aurora whenever the electricity of the upper
air is sufficiently intense, and the conducting power of the air is favorable for
the slow transmission of an electric current.
19. Cause of the annual inequality in the frequency of auroras —The unequal
frequency of auroras in the different months of the year appears to depend partly
upon the amount of electricity present in the upper air, and partly upon the
humidity of the air by which this electricity may be discharged. The supply
of electricity must be greatest when the evaporation is most rapid, that is, in
summer; and this is probably the reason why in North America auroras are
more frequent in summer than in winter; and it is not improbable that, were it
not for the longer continuance of daylight in summer, auroras would then be
more frequent than at any other period of the year. In Europe auroras are
seldom seen in midsummer, because, in those latitudes to which auroras are
almost exclusively confined, twilight in midsummer continues all night.
20. Cause of the secular equality in the frequency of auroras —The secular
inequality in the frequency of auroras seems to indicate the influence of distant
celestial bodies upon the electricity of our globe. The periods of auroras observe
laws which are very similar, if not absolutely identical, with those of at least
two other phenomena, viz: the mean diurnal variation of the magnetic needle,
and the frequency of black spots upon the sun’s surface.
It is found that the north end of the magnetic needle has, in the morning, a
regular motion eastward amounting to from one to three minutes, when the de-
clination in New England is usually less than at any other hour of the day,
and may, therefore, be called the minimum. This minimum during the winter
is attained about nine o’clock, but during the summer months commonly as
early as seven. The needle then gradually deviates to the west, and attains its
greatest westerly bearing about two o’clock in the afternoon, when the declina-
tion is greater than at any other hour of the day, and may, therefore, be called
its maximum. From this time the needle again returns to the eastward, till it
attains its original bearing, about 10 o’clock. During the night another small
oscillation occurs, the north pole moving west until 3 a. m., and returning again
as before. ‘The mean daily change of the magnetic needle not only varies with
the locality, but also varies from one year to another at the same locality ; and
these variations present a decided appearance of periodicity. In the following
table, column third shows the mean daily variation of the magnetic needle at
the stations named in the fourth column for the years mentioned in the first
column. ‘These numbers are derived mostly from a table furnished by Pro-
fessor R. Wolf, and published in Poggendorff’s Annalen for 1862, v. 193, p. 503.
Column second of the same table shows the relative frequency of the solar
spots, as determined by a collection of about 20,000 observations made by Pro-
fessor Wolf.
AURORA BOREALIS.’ 243
Column fifth shows the years in which auroras exhibited a maximum or a
minimum frequency.
Fa | 3 ¢ fe | & =
A 2, % es ; a | og
od 2 = | > ma ake 2 :
Bi shad & 2 Sn | bo ED 2
". o c os i r-) 2 S or] cs:
en a = < ° = a <
e Jy
Ghia, aE Apes Sel Boe a ake Se ee ey ig AS Oy ce lOpoatU5C 0 ye WA pa ob | a heey ye
(Revd whe pe ee oe ees Maximum -j} 1808... Coir laa ates < |\s/atn:c kes fet ates Cee ee eta Ra San
uh o Ses 46 28 2) SRE SSeS rece Seen eee e 1809... ON Bp leo aie 2a Sal einin'e ateidia ee as | Ce eeeteeae
Ryan iaee epee einer yey. See eel bs Ceo 1810... ORO Ra aos POE | Seo Ua, Rees | eects
COMA Pe eee ee | Jeon a As dhe Jen eo | 18th a ONO Bale es 321 setae eee Minimum.
Totes Ke See Aeon] DOO OOEIEC EC a See Serene asthe = ake i See Eee eee | ee ee
GAO) Mb ereee igs se etisee4 Sheet Minimum. .|/ 1813...) 73.7 6.562} ondon\. 2. Jee ace
BU Bag esata |i nic tae w= clea ol aris mes ia ce ele 184 Sa 20S OA 87. 62) ll sdoe == .o sos oeees ee
SUR eo ee Re BRS ociae eee es ja tS) SSE ably) VEN Eee eo ee He =, iSite ars
FEY SAME SIS Shoe ere RSS Seem eel seen eee ee SI GRee eos OF sees eisnr |e OSCE sche. Oe ia| ee eee eee
ReaGits WeLOs Os PUONGON =< |. Rees ane | 1817-.-| 43.5 Lo DIK IEEE S OM Se ee eee ese =
ARO eee weal: Sncctc steer oe Maximum -|/ 1818...] 34.1 GrOlee sas dO! cee ae Maximum
Tp ION ye Bocas See se boar Soc Ue og eee See seer. UBIO: sseyeenen edie eas S2e.fee let hone Baees
Su ole SES fee Bae eR OSA Sel Bet ee aoe 1820. .- 8.9 AO) ints Oars, siajc aa] oe tec eeatetats
Rh AR | ee CANN RS 8 aH 2 he ee ee eee 1821... 4.3 9.10 Parise. 42. .|% see eae
Oe | a a IR a a nae ee Ren Cee eae OG lea flor So oe, ee Oe HE BY
ON net yaaa Cae cies sie sia ais Sia sais m oie ce Sette [823s AS} 8.18 Se Owe ec oe | Minimum.
Pe ible sess cele cibaeseion.c sea aee Minimum .-|| 1824...] 6.7 8. 20 AG saa 5k Aa scee eee
Gm ee pee Rs el ae [e825 222) sre LONG zal SU dae a eee ote!
ENOL ay Ee tee BB i 8 2 SS See eee 1826. ..| 29.4 9. 76 SAULOl on eroeet este seat
eos fl Wlacemenadiscraoopec cms Ga4 losece assess 1827. ..|| 39.9 11.31 doe: rise 5 Bo ey ee
ON Abed RL WA ae. Soe rice Maximum. ||| 1828 5ei\eoeuoie ill) 2) seen do) sane ss eeese ae
TBO Bo eB bei Bees a Cee SACO BA oem sete ae | FE2Q Oss FOS On Hedsnee: BORG \ eae Maximum
oR ere ssa Ro sosee] 9p sac] Meee Berea 1830_ ..|, 59, 1 12. 40 oh UO} cee yas een eee
ethic) © dp Sdacaealcoscaceass so s0S| Se50ccpeogae 1831..-| 38.8 1 2) et Ove ays cole cee eee ee
CUR ON Gop booed booeosbonocg. >on) HecSremeaaaE WEBQE eT) MIRE e ee Eee eT ew SA Pee
OP |e Sa eee Se eae eae Gee aa eeeee 1833256 (sy OES SOR eh Se ee eee Minimum.
Seine htc dia slo ciate atte nina a Minimum -}| 1834...} 11.4 7.797 | Gottingen -- | ote tees aerate
Gsa0e) 11.2.2) | Montmorency; =|. --s0% 25. 1835. ..|) 49.5 ORD nei. COleGt ea] tne loa eee
94.8 TUONO en hE ee (ilo) SEAS See ese Re sae (886e ee oun 12. 34 MPANLO 9 5 ataenrsiepell laps se ee
99, 2 oe a id | arse ie doy.s 22-56 Maximum?}|1837-- | aR Oor oye tee ldo = ee) eee
72.62 Sysayi) Saness GF ceo Se eos Coe | 1838...) 82.6 are ee EGO a ij5 Soe (ae oes eee
67.7 9.12 || Mannheim-...-.).-...-.....- 1839251 6825) ilies) eragderes a... Maximum
S32 Olly ie 2s done lieaya sao ap4ol ss Sabet igiga i) ido... 122 [et Lane
OARS YU Meat Besoce (Gly Seceocs| aces SecoRee 18415219 2927, Tic 23 tee | es (Oe jes cert Se
AXA 6298) |iza2. 52 Corso ae5 = Miniroum -|}! 1842...) 19.5 Gaatee |: te C01 ssn oso5 ean eo
TSE WE SO Eason <= doe eae Be ee TRASH! | PRONG alors he Ido sey | Minimum
60.8 14. 00 Ie ihal) oS opdaace| Maossecaemes 1844...} 13.0 6. 05 S86 dO: bs sere! tore
92.8 a ivi | eee Cc Coes ee) Cae ere | 1845-22] 33/0 6. 99 Pkt (0 paint tee be te cen ey
90. 6 TAS wie wees dors: Maximum -|! 1846.__| 47.0 7. 65 Hie doles oke s45*
Bose ele, OOl |) MuONOOM sooeia-\|s tasers cies n= © W847. <2) Ore 8.78 PR OER aS Aa Sages aise
F9.2) HDA) Bois. 22 owe See ce Perens 22k od 1848...| 100.4 | 10.75 vidoe 228 et Maximum
46.1 1 Ein 9) oem er GOyee sie Nas See tiecs. ce 1849...} 95.6 10. 27 244002 eee: 2| bese ers
Sh Ti eat SA Riehl cece Cho arias es I letra ea a pri 1850-..| 64.5 9. 97 Oi 12 onl | eee eee
20swet. |) Bi4Se iss < cm Ci Kas he a ae eae U5 et GLES SIBQ is Hs sdens 2 Rae pee
23.9 CRY Nig Bees Choy EES S85 ee eee 1852 52 al ogee 8. 09 Ed Oakey cei =) Gere eee
16.5 48 oce LO) fess tae easels Hiteies keels hh 77 MNO Me OO ne eee mete aera
9.4 85,029) eee C0) BARC SEE Hose mee ena||| des ey | IR? GHB Ett doreeet Tl. aera rhe
5. 6 SheW scans O10) en o550e| Geeeerae eee Ike bpsy, == 6.9 CO TUPI Noy: Cameo UN |e 5 ene
2.8 TAA PE eM (lo nes ees Minimum .-}| 1856--- 4,2 ShiS lobe 5 eel (kom Ae Minimum.
5.9. th OW eee GO sesso cta eo. sisi PO5K- = 4 1AG G85 Sedor=s - 3a h ey 2
16.1 Cle ee oe ain Goyer eters | cceisa se earaios 1858-..| 50.9 ie Ae es Oe eae see es oa
BOLO |) 7074.2) | oo. = le ea a el a ee ee 1859...) 96.4 MONS Te Meee cous aN APs. Rake real TA
Beto MOADGie le amsen GO cere cats ceseics tic 1860...| 98.6 ONO tol eos s 5 eo ES SER + cs
50.072 eat Ree CO EARS = ee ee ee B61 -.a|* SUN An eee ee ee ee Muximum
MONON (Sx48i21 2.5 donee ss Maximtim’.|i\ 1862:25 (Mab ON pecan en, SOREN TOS See er ee
NOV ee Bap dei Ifo om aiats Goeee sea eteses cise 1863 35. ares | eee ee eee ey TRE yo S12 NS ee
8300.01) | OOS S65] FOGEee eee eee eee a eae LB642 = =| 455 G ian emperor be | eR 8 ls
Upon inspecting this table we perceive that the mean annual range of the
maguetic needle exhibits periodical variations, and these changes show a re-
markable regularity during the last twenty-five years, embracing a period during
which the needle has been observed with much greater care than formerly. The
interval from one maximum to another is a little more than ten years. We
also perceive that the successive maxima are not equal to each other, but ex-
hibit variations which indicate a periodicity, showing a tendency to attain their
greatest value afier an interval of about five periods, or from fifty to sixty years.
244 ‘AURORA BOREALIS.
The relative frequency of the solar spots exhibits a similar periodicity, and
the maximum number of spots corresponds in a remarkable manner with the
maximum value of the magnetic variation. Indeed, for the past forty years the
times of maxima and minima of the two phenomena have been almost absolutely-
identical, and seem to favor the conclusion that the apparent anomalies occasion-
ally noticeable in the earlier observations are due mainly to the incompleteness of
the observations ; for it is only since 1826 that any one has undertaken to keep
a continuous record of all the spots visible at any time upon the sun’s disk ; and
before 1818 the observations of the magnetic declination were, for the most
part, only oecasional, and are generally insufficient to determine, in a perfectly
satisfactory manner, the mean annual range of the magnetic needle. The ob-
servations seem also to Indicate that the successive maxima are not all equal to
each other, but are themselves subject to a periodicity ; one period extending
trom 1779 to 1839, comprehending an interval of fifty-eight years
We have found that auroras exhibit a periodicity, the last period extend-
ing from 1779-80 to 1839-’40, embracing an interval of about sixty years;
and during this period there have been indications of alternate maximum
and minimum abundance, corresponding in a remarkable manner with the
maxima and minima of the solar spots, if we except the period from 1800 to
1820, during which auroras were too infrequent to afford the basis for a safe de-
duction.
It seems, then, pretty well established that these three phenomena, the solar
spots, the mean daily range of the magnetic needle, and the frequency of auroral
exhibitions, manifest two distinct periods; one a period of from ten to twelve
years, the other a period of from fifty-eight to sixty years. ‘The first of these
periods corresponds to one revolution of Jupiter, and it has been suspected that
Jupiter might be the occasion of these periodical disturbances of the sun’s sur-
face. If Jupiter does, indeed, exert such an influence, then it is to be presumed
that Saturn must exert a similar, though less powerful influence, which wouid
have a period of about thirty years ; and since five revolutions of Jupiter covre-
spond nearly to two of Saturn, embracing a period of fifty-nine and a half years,
at the end of this period the two planets return to nearly the same relative
positions, and their joint action should exhibit a period of fifty-nine and a half
years.
If Jupiter and Saturn do, indeed, exert suck an influence upon the sun’s sur-
face, then it seems probable that each of the other planets must also exert an
influence, (though perhaps inappreciable;) and the earth may exert a direct in-
fluence upon the sun’s surface, causing an inequality in the solar spots, whose
period is one year; and Venus and Mereury may exert a similar influence.
If we inquire for the mode in which the planets might exert an influence upon
the sun’s surface we are left almost entirely to conjecture. But one plausible
hypothesis is that there are continually circulating around the sun powerful
electric currents, which currents may possibly be the source of the sun’s light;
that these currents act upon the planets, developing in them electric currents, or
modifying the currents developed in them by the action of other forces; that
these currents circulating around the planets react upon the solar currents with
a force depending upon the variable distance of the planet, and therefore having
periods corresponding to the times of revolution of the planets. These disturb-
ances of the solar electric currents may be one cause of the solar spots, and an
unusual disturbance of the solar currents may cause a simultaneous disturbance
of the electric currents of the earth’s surface, giving rise to unusual manifesia-
tions of electric light—that is, to unusual displays of the aurora.
‘There is also another cause which may produce a change in the number of
auroras visible at one station, viz., the gradual change of position of the terrestrial
magnetic poles. The dip of the magnetic needle at Paris in 1671 was 75°,
while in 1864 it was only 66° 3’, showing a diminution of 8° 57’ in 193 years,
AURORA BOREALIS. 245
being an average diminution of 2.7/ annually. Observations made in other parts
of Europe give similar results. In the northeastern part of the United States
the dip attained its minimum about 1843, and is now slowly increasing.* This
change of dip implies a change of distance from the magnetic pole, and probably
a corresponding change in the frequency of auroral displays. We do not know
what is the cause of this motion of the magnetic poles, and whether the motion
is periodical. It has been conjectured to be the result of great geological changes
going on in the crust of the earth. But whatever may be its origin, this cause
must modify and complicate the influence of extra-terrestrial bodies upon the
earth’s magnetism.
21. Why do great auroral exhilitions take place simultaneously in both
hemispheres of the earth ?—During the years 1841-’8, as has been mentioned
before, there were recorded at Hobarton, latitude 42° 52’ south, 34 auroras. In
29 of these cases an aurora was recorded either in Europe or America, and in
the 5 remaining cases there was recorded an unusual disturbance of the mag-
netic needle, indicating the existence of an aurora at no very remote station:
The great auroral displays of August 29 and September 2, 1859, were among
the most remarkable ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. Both of them
were conspicuous at Cuba, where but four auroras had ever before been recorded.
The aurora of September 2 was seen in latitude 12° north, where there was no
tradition that such a phenomenon had ever.been seen before. In the southern
hemisphere an aurora occurred simultaneously, and was almost equally re-
markable for its brilliancy as well as its geographical extent.
We cannot explain the great auroral displays in the northern hemisphere by
supposing that the electricity of the atmosphere is temporarily diverted from one
hemisphere and concentrated in the other. Such an idea is entirely refuted by
observations of the mean range of the magnetic needle, which exhibits its maxima
simultaneously in both hemispheres. This is shown by the following table,
which exhibits the amount of the mean diurnal variation at Prague, latitude
50° 5’ north; Toronto, latitude 43° 40/ north ; and Hobarton, latitude 42° 52!
south.
Years. Prague. Toronto. Hobarton.
oD
9,50 8. 28
8. 67 7.75
8. 90 7, 66
8. 87 7,84
9, 41 8.39
9. 27 9, 06
19. 40 9, 93
12.11 10. 63
Way 8.13
10.88 8.57
10. 15 6. 65
The great disturbances of the earth’s magnetism, therefore, take place sim-
ultaneously in both hemispheres, and they exhibit the same periods. Now, we
cannot suppose that the absolute amount of electricity for the entire globe, as
developed by evaporation from the water of the ocean, should undergo any such
periodical variation, for we know that the mean temperature of the earth’:
surface does not change sensibly from one year to another, and hence we seem
compelled to ascribe these great auroral displays in no small degree to the direct
action of the sun, through the agency, perhaps, of its magnetism, or of the
*U. S. Coast Survey Report 1856, p. 244.
246 AURORA BOREALIS.
electric currents circulating around it, which electric currents are sensibly dis-
turbed by the action of the larger planets. Such an effect might be expected
to take place simultaneously in both hemispheres, and in conformity with the
results of experiments with artificial magnets, the exhibition of light should take
place chiefly in the region about the magnetic poles of the ear th.
Weare thus led to regard great auroral displays as no longer an exclusively
atmospheric phenomenon, and as being to an important extent the result of the
influence of extra-terrestrial forces. But if these extraordinary electric currents
are mainly determined by extra-terrestrial forces, then since the earth exhibits
many of the properties of a great and permanent magnet, the two magnetie
poles of the earth ought to exert opposite influences, and we should expect
that the currents in the neighborhood of the two poles would move in contrary
directions. We are thus naturally led to infer a system of circulation some-
what similar to that suggested by Mr. B. V. Marsh*, and which is illustrated
by figure 6, where N and S are supposed to represent the north and south
magnetic poles of the earth, 2 and s the poles of an imaginary magnet, repre-
senting the magnetism of the earth. ‘The east and west bands represent
auroral arches upon which stand auroral streamers. The dotted lines
represent magnetic curves passing from auroral streamers in the northern
hemisphere to streamers in the southern hemisphere, showing the path pursued
by the currents of electricity in passing from one hemisphere to the other above the
atmosphere. It is not clear from Mr. Marsh’s paper that he supposed a regular
flow of positive electricity through the earth from north to south, and above the
atmosphere from south to north, but this seems to me to be necessary to render
his hypothesis complete.
If, then, we regard great auroral displays as mainly determined by terrestrial
forces, the system of circulation previously described seems the most natural
one; but if they are determined mainly by extra-terrestrial forces, the system of
circulation just described appears the most probable. The two hypotheses
substantially agree, so far as the phenomena can be observed in the northern
hemisphere, but they lead to opposite results in the southern hemisphere, where
the first hypothesis supposes that the motion of positive electricity along the
surface of the earth is from south to north, and the latter supposes it to be from
north to south. If the direction of this motion could be determined by direct
observation, it would decide between the two hypotheses; and such observations
might doubtless be made in Australia. During the auroras of August 28 and
29, 1859, the wires of the electric telegraph in Australia were disturbed to such
a degree that it was almost impossible to transmit any continuous message.t
It does not appear that any measures were adopted to determine the direction
of these electric currents. If, during some future auroral display, such obser-
vations could be made, they would ‘probably furnish the experimentum crucis
to decide between these two hypotheses.
In attempting to explain the phenomena of the aurora, I have been led to
describe hypotheses which, by the progress of science, are liable any year to be
disproved. ‘These hypotheses, therefore, must not be regarded as established
principles, but simply as convenient formule for connecting facts which other-
wise appear disjointed. Such hypotheses often prove useful for the promotion
of science by suggesting new observations or researches, like the one just men-
tioned respecting the direction of electric currents in the southern hemisphere.
In conclusion, I will make a few suggestions addressed especially to the me-
teorological observers of the Smithsonian Institution :
1. It is desirable that there should be preserved a continuous and complete
record of all visible auroras at a variety of stations. Such observations are de-
* American Journal of Science, n. s., v. 31, p. 311.
t American Jcurnal of Science, n. s., v. 32, p. 8.
247
AURORA BOREALIS.
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248 AURORA BOREALIS.
=|
sirable from a series of stations stretching along the entire northern frontier of
the United States, and the observations should be continuous from year to year.
They should embrace a record of ai? auroras, even the faintest, and should state
concisely their degree of brightness. Such records will, in time, enable us to
decide the questions which may arise respecting the periodical character of these
phenomena.
2. Whenever well-defined auroral arches are observed, it is important to locate
accurately their east and west extremities with reference to the magnetic me-
ridian. We may thus find that the vertex of the arch does not ordinarily lie
exactly in the magnetic meridian.
3. Whenever auroral streamers are noticed, which are so peculiar that they
may be easily identified, locate them accurately with reference to neighboring
stars, and determine in what direction they move, and with what angular velocity.
4. Record carefully the precise time of every auroral observation.
-
ON THE SENSES.
1—THE SENSE OF FEELING.
Trauslated for the Smithsonian Institution from the German periodical, ‘‘ Aus der Natur,
u. S. w.,.’ Leipzig.
The senses, those open portals of the soul through which its perception of
external things is constantly streaming in; the sources from which, whether con-
sciously or unconsciously, it derives its impulses to thought and action, are, to
many even of the educated, possessions so little understood and so wrongly ap-
preciated in many important respects, that the attempt to afford a clear insight
into their manifold and marvellous sphere of activity can scarcely be otherwise
than acceptable. It is not the mechanism of that activity, the structure of the
apparatus and the complex and connected series of incidents which occupy the
seemingly slight interval between the vibration of a string or flash of a sunbeam,
and the well recognized sensations of sound or light, which form the sole prob-
lems of such a discussion. The physiologist, with his vast apparatus of knowl-
edge and expedients, stands here before a mysterious deep, into whose darkness
no hypothesis sheds light, for penetration into whose recesses no accessible path
or guiding hand offers itself to his keenest researches. We may wonder at the
rapid and brilliant development of modern physiology, even as regards its in-
quiries into the theory of sensation, at the dexterity of the microscopist in dis-
entangling the structural complexities of the organs of sense, the accuracy with
which the path of light has been traced in the camera obscura of the eye, and
the form of the vibration communicated by the air-wave to the apparatus of the
ear; but everywhere, in regard to every organ, we come upon an abrupt boundary
to our researches—the edge of that enigmatical deep, within which lies hid the
true and intrinsic germ of the physiology of sense. What passes in the delicate
filament of the optic nerve when a wave of light strikes its extremity in the
retina of the eye? That is the first great problem, whose solution may now,
perhaps, have been brought within reach, but which has heretofore lain at an
unapproachable distance. We know that it is a motion which, in the fibre of
the eye, telegraphs to the brain the arrival of the light-wave; an ingenious
savant has even measured the velocity of that motion, but the moving force, the
matter moved, and the form of the movement, are as yet unknown. Lut were
even this problem solved, did the mechanism of the organs and the processes in
the nervous fibres, which convey the impressions of the outer world to the soul,
lie before us in noonday clearness, there would yet remain for us the last and
most difficult problem: How does this physical motion, which shoots along the
nerve-filaments, become in the brain a conscious sensation? Sensation and
current (since thus we must express ourselves) are in the nervous fibre two
wholly different and in nowise comparable things—just as much so as the de-
spatch of the telegraph and the electric stream which traverses the wires; we
know that the sensation is produced and its conditions determined by the
current, but the nature of the causative connexion is to us a mystery, like that
of the sensation itself. These passing intimations, which will assume in the
course of our inquiries a more definite and intelligible form, are here premised
250 ON THE SENSES.
only to show that we should undertake an impossibility did we aim to commu-
nicate to the novices of science a complete comprehension of the mechanism of
the action of the senses. We fear, indeed, that for some of the teachings of the
theory of physical sensation, which are clear enough to the learned, it will be
difficult to find in the circuit of popular ideas pencil or colors with which to
trace a clearly comprehensible image. No doubt, indeed, that at the present
day, when both fashion and profit conspire to popularize the treasures of science,
there may be found limners who, in comparison with effectiveness, consider any
plain portraiture of the objects of sober science quite a secondary affair; but we
eschew all affiliation with artists of this sort; we willingly exchange the cheap
glitter of the parade for the honor of standing as a sentry before the sanctuary
of science. ‘There is a vast deal in the sphere of the physiology of the senses,
which may be plainly translated into the language of the laity of science, and
which is of the more interest to them as false representations and notions are
deeply rooted and widely prevail in the ideas and expressions of mankind.
How little do men understand the operations of their senses, how little are
they qualified to form a right conception of the nature and import of a simple
sensation, pertain to whichever or the senses it may, so as to separate, on the
one hand, this bare sensation from the multifarious impressions which insensibly
combine with it, and to distinguish, on the other hand, the qualities of the sen-
sation from the properties of the external objects and incidents which occasion
it. One or two examples will substantiate this charge, and many a reader, we
are convinced, will with surprise hear that named an error which he holds to
be unquestionable truth and the result of direct observation. You hear the
sound of a string which is struck, and speak of the “resounding string ;” you
see the leaves of the trees and designate the green color as a property of the
leaves ; you taste sugar and impute to the sugar the sweet taste: these are all
errors! ‘The string only vibrates—it does not sound; the sound originates in
yourself, is the peculiar and no further to be explained sensation which arises
when the vibrating string has by its oscillations set in motion the particles of
air, a motion which these particles convey to the tympanum of the ear, this in
turn to the small bones of that organ, these to the fluid of the so-called laby-
rinth, and this to the extremities of the auditory nerves, when it is propagated
through these nerves by the unknown movement which we have designated
above as “a current’’ to the brain, and by a suitable adjustment of that appa-
ratus produce the condition of our sentient nature of which we are conscious
as sound. ‘The original vibrations determine the character of the sound, but
have nothing in common with it. The same is the case with the green color of
leaves: the leaves are not green; they but possess the quality of producing
the sensation which we term green, without knowing what green is, except that
it depends on the presence between the eye and the leaf of an impalpable fluid
or ether whose tremulous palpitations are propagated to the organ of sight in
the form of waves. When a wave of this sort strikes upon the extremities of
the nerves in the back of the eye, that unknown current is again produced in
the appropriate filaments, and this it is which calls into being in the brain the
sentient condition which we call the sensation of light. This wave of the
ethereal particles in vibration has, like the waters of the agitated sea, a deter-
minate length, a determinate velocity, which science has measured, though the
ether itself be wholly inscrutable. Were the waves which proceed from the
leaf longer or shorter, were the velocity of the vibrations greater or less, they
would excite in the perceptive faculty, through the nerves, a differently modi-
fied sensation which we should designate as a red, blue or yellow color. ‘This
then is the first striking error, that each of us considers the qualities of his own
sensation to be the qualities of the external object or incident which is the
cause of the sensation. It is an error hard to be eradicated, as it is entwined
with our habits both of thought and speech, and finds countenance not only in
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 251
the language of novices and poets, but even in that of sober science, physicists
and physiologists still continuing to write of blue and red light, sounding
strings, &c., as of old. But to proceed to other misconceptions. You press with
the sensitive points of your fingers against some object, and believe that you
feel this object immediately as one existing without your own body ; in other
words, the perception of the object touched seems a direct sensation, seems to
be the substance of the sensation. Now, this is an illusion, a confounding of
sensation with idea.
The perception of the object touched is a representation which the mind forms
for itself from the sensation by help of certain recognitions derived from expe-
rience—an interpretation of the simple sensation, which the mind has patiently
learned to supply in the years of childhood, but it is by no means the sensation
itself. Could you be suddenly carried back to the first days of life, and with
matured understanding observe the first sensations of your self-educating mind,
you would become aware that from the touching of an object there results at first
only what we may call, but scarce define in words, a sensation of pressure; that
in the simple, original, swdject?ve sensation there exists no perception of the place
of contact or part of the skin pressed. The mind first gradually learns, by
circuitous procedures, to be described below, that certain qualifying differences
in the sensation are determined through the different points at which the skin
is pressed, and thus first learns to set itself right as regards its widespread
organ of feeling. The mind knows nothing at the outset of objects without us;
this knowledge it first learns through the conscious movements of the organs of
feeling, whereby it is taught that the same movement of a finger is now ac-
companied with a sensation of pressure, and now is not. ‘The idea of external
objects of sensation once acquired, it is easy, even without the help of the sense
of sight, which must itself pass through the same schooling, to recognize an
outer object as cause of the sensation, thus imparting to the latter the character
of objectivity. The mind rapidly acquires practice in the interpretation of its
sensations, no longer needs reflection to assign to each of them the appropriate
idea, and finally connects this last so unconsciously and quickly with the sensa-
tion that they present themselves simultaneously. Forgetting the mental ap-
plication by which this association has been brought about, the adult man takes
the sensation and idea for one, or rather conceives the last to be the very essence
of the sensation. This error is a general one, and becomes established in the pro-
cess of mental development, so that nothing less was needed than the perspica-
city and penetrating psychical analysis of one of our most eminent physiolo-
gists to fix irrevocably for science the precise boundary between sensation and
idea, ( Vorstellung.) This service we owe to C. H. Weber, and yet, despite
the light which he has thrown upon it, a young physiologist has latcly striven
anew and obstinately to defend the existence of an objective sensation of touch,
(tastempfindung,) a sensation, the immediate and real essence of which is the
perception of an object touched. We could adduce many examples of the con-
fusion-of sensations, and representations immediately derived therefrom,. for
each sense affords them in abundance; nay, we are prone wholly to forget that
the sensations are subjective, and think that our senses penetrate into the out-
ward world, while, on the contrary, it is the outward world which penetrates
through the senses into us. We speak of a force of vision, which carries our
sight forth as it were into the immeasurable distance, while it is from the im-
measurable distance that the waves of light pulsate into the interior of our
eyes, and it is in the secret recesses of the brain that the mind first gathers the
sensation from the appulse of the currents of the nerves.
I could hope, by these preliminary remarks, to have excited in my readers
an interest in the mysterious functions of the senses, and the desire to bear me
company in a survey of their practical workings, to the end that we may catch
their sign-language in its natural simplicity, and eventually analyze the high
252 ON THE SENSES.
and inexhaustibly varied signification of that language, the living sense which
the dead sign acquires through the operation of the thinking spirit. It is the
sense of feeling, whose nature and operations I shall first address myself to
discuss, as it is in relation to this sense probably that intelligible ideas can be most
readily conveyed to the general reader. At another time, perhaps, I may be
permitted to attempt a popular exposition of the rest of the senses, especially
the more complex ones of seeing and hearing, for which certainly a more com-
prehensive apparatus of previously acquired physical knowledge will be re-
uisite.
7 If we ask, in the first place, what a sensation of touch is, no other reply can
be given than an enumeration of the manifold kinds of sensation which pertain
to this class; what is felt we cannot define, nor assign any characteristic token
of the sensation. An explanation through the cause of the sensation, as, for
instance, that the sensation of heat is that which results from the touch of a
heated body, is no definition, merely a paraphrase, which gives us not the
slightest insight into the nature of the sensation itself. Neither the feeling of
pain nor hunger admits of being described, but can only be experienced, and
were there any fortunate individual who had never felt bodily pain, and wished
to know what pain is, we should never be able to satisfy his curiosity by words,
but only by communicating to him a sensation of pain, from which he might
prosecute his study of the idea at leisure. We must rely then entirely upon
the experience of the reader when we recount the impressions of this sense;
the knowledge of their nature can only consist in a remembrance of the sensa-
tions experienced. Sensations of pain, tickling, shuddering, pleasure, hunger,
thirst, pressure, heat, and cold, are the different qualities of this feeling; other
distinctions, it is true, obtain in common language, but, as will readily be seen,
without reason. The generality of mankind are prone, as regards pain alone,
to distinguish many various qualities, such as boring, burning, pricking, tearing,
&c.; the sensation of pain, however, has probably but one quality, and the
varieties named are to be referred merely to differences in its duration and in-
tensity. Since we cannot, in general, more closely characterize any of these
qualities of feeling, it is, of course, impossible to compare them and express in
words the distinction between them. ‘The above-named sensations admit, how-
ever, of a division into two distinctly marked classes, one of which, being the
more definite, may be designated as the sensation of touch, (tastempfindung,)
the other as common feeling, (gemeingefiihl.) To the latter pertain sensations
of pain, shuddering, tickling, pleasure, hunger, and thirst; to the former those
of pressure and of temperature. The distinction between the classes will be
elucidated by the following example. If we touch an object with the finger
there arises a sense of pressure, but at the same time, as has been already
stated, an idea not alone of the existence of an external object as cause of the
pressure, but also of its size and form, the condition of its surface, its solidity
and weight. If, on the other hand, we touch hot iron, there results a purely
subjective sensation of pain, from which alone the mind derives no representa-
tion of the object which inflicts the pain and of its qualities; or, to choose a
striking example, when pain is felt within the body, with but an obscure per-
ception of the place of suffering, the mind is unable to form from the painful
sensation the representation of an object through contact with which the pain
may be occasioned, or of the properties, form, and extent of that object. ‘The
essential difference, to be more fully explained hereafter, between a common
sensation and one of touch, consists, then, in this—that in the former it is the
isolated subjective sensation which excites consciousness, while with the latter
are associated objective ideas, through which alone the mind obtains a knowl-
edge of the outward world in its manifold relations. And hence is the sensa-
tion of touch a genuine function of the sense, which the common feeling of
pain is not.
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 253
In order to render clear the distinction between the sense of touch and com-
mon fecling, we are forced to take a somewhat wider view. Few of my readers,
perhaps, have a correct idea of a nerve and its functions ; and many, who rightly
or wrongly impute every evil to the poor nerves, know as little how to justify
the charge, as to appreciate the services of these scape-goats of the bodily
machine. Honestly speaking, physiology itself ean afford us no certain expla-
nation of the nevous energy ; it has a prudent distrust, however, and has chased
from the temple many a time-honored error and empty phrase respecting the
action of the nerves; and the elimination of error, we know, is the first step
towards the knowledge of truth.
I assume that my readers have derived from other sources some knowledge of
the nature, causes, and operations of the electric current. Few will be ignorant
that such a current, however generated, may be conducted through a metallic
wire, and, according to the nature of the apparatus with which that wire is con-
nected, produce the most surprising and varied effects ; that we may thus explode
powder, drive the wheels of a car, and set in motion the machinery of a clock or
a telegraph. Now, the innumerable nerve-filaments which traverse our bodies
in all directions are similar to that metallic wire, and the unknown element of
activity which shoots along the nerves is analogous to the electric current which
flashes along the wire. We wish it to be observed, that we use the word analo-
gous as implying that it is by no means the electric current itself which cireu-
lates in the nerves as in the conducting wires when in a state of activity. Long
and persistent efforts have been made in the province of physiology to identify
the active principle of the nerves with the electric current on account of some
superficial resemblance in the phenomena; but more recent and exact inquiry
has conclusively repudiated this hypothesis, by which the nervous fibres were
consigned to the simple office of conductors, and might, it would seem, have been
replaced by metallic wires. But though the nervous and the electrical currents
are not identical, they are yet strikingly comparable with one another, and we
know no better images by which, for general readers, the functions of the nerves
can be made intelligible. For, as the electrie stream can be produced in the
conducting wire by different means ‘and apparatus, so the process in the nerves
which we call “a nervous current” can, in various ways, be excited; if, for in-
stance, we lay a nerve bare in a living animal, that nerve is thrown into a state
of activity ; or, in other words, the current is produced by wounding or by pres-
sure, by an electrical shock or the application of any irritating or corrosive
substanee. The agent by which such an effect is produced we call an uritant,
and this, according to its nature, may be either mechanical, electrical, thermal,
or chemical. But besides these irritants which excite the nerves by their direct
action, there are a number of others, and those among the most important, which
are only competent to that effect under certain circumstances, and with the help
of an appropriate apparatus. In this class light and sound are the most promi-
nent. We can easily satist'y ourselves by experiments brought to bear upon
the exposed nerve of a leg for instance; neither of those active principles pro-
duces the slightest excitement. Lay bare even the optic nerve, and allow the
sun to shine upon its fibres, no irritation will be manifested; but how different
the effect when light is admitted to that living and wonderfully constructed ap-
paratus by which the ends of those fibres are connected with the pupil of the
eye. Analogous effects are witnessed with regard to sound, which then only is
operative as a nervous irritant when its undulations have reached the extremities
of the auditory nerves after having passed through the exterior mechanism of
the ear and the fluid of the labyrinth. The undulations of light and sound,
therefore, are only mediate or indirect irritants of the nerves, and excite the
latter by means of a peculiar intermediate apparatus, in which most probably
they produce some action, whether chemical or physical, by which the nervous
current is set in motion. We might presume, for example, that the waves of
254 ‘ON THE SENSES.
light, when they strike upon this terminal apparatus of the optic nerves, produce
in its substance a chemical change, and thus supply a chemical irritant, a con-
jecture not without support in the many well-known chemical effects of light,
though not susceptible of previous proof. ‘The nervous current excited by these
different mediate or immediate irritants traverses the nerves, ant, like the elec-
tric current of the wires, is adapted to the production of the most diversified
effects according to the organization and apparatus with which the nervous fibre
is in connexion. There is a large class of these filaments which, having their
origin in the brain and spinal column, penetrate the flesh, and, in some manner
not clearly understood, connect themselves with its elements, the muscular fibres.
If a current be excited by some irritant in a nerve of this sort, that current will
flow from the point of irritation to both extremities of the fibre; at the outward
extremity it takes effect upon the muscular fibre, which is so constituted that it
necessarily contracts under the operation of the nervous current. The part of
the current which flows to the inner extremity in the brain and spine meets
there with no arrangement through which any phenomenal effect is manifested ;
on the other hand, there exists at the inner extremity of every nerve proceeding
to a muscle, an apparatus through which the will can excite a current in the
particular fibre. ‘he microscope shows us this apparatus in the form of a small
bulbous body occupied by a turbid fluid and a nucleus, and physiology teaches
us that through this bulb the physical energy acts upon the nervous fibre; but
though we tlius learn the state and purpose of the mechanism, not the slightest
intimation do we gather of the nature of its action, of the way and manner in
which through this bulb the presumed immaterial principle of the will communi-
cates to the fibre the impulse from which results the contraction of the muscle
and the varied movements of the limbs. This riddle we shall, perhaps, never
solve; it would still be one if the process within the active fibre of the nerve
were laid open; nay, could physiology surprise the vital activity of the terminal
bulb itself, the problem would still remain inexplicable so long as the will, the
last term of the causative series, subsists as a force independent of matter. The
riddle only becomes more wonderful when we see that, at the inner end of most
probably all the remaining nerve-fibres in the brain and spine, are found the so-
called nerve cells, being bulbous bodies, existing under wholly similar conditions.
We distinguish from the nerves of motion, whose destination we have been con-
sidering, a second great class of nervous fibres as xerves of sensation, being all
those whose excitation, by whatever, irritant it be determined, produces some
sort of sensation. ‘Their fibres fully resemble those which effect the movements
of the limbs, and here also we have to seek the nature of the apparatus at both
extremities, as well as that which communicates the excitation as that through
which the latter produces an effect.
We find the nerves of sensation stretching between the brain and spine on the
one hand, and the exterior surface of the body, as well as almost all the internal
organs, on the other. The apparatus of the inner extremity, therefore, is seated
in the central part of the nervous system, that of the outer extremity in the
organs of sense, the whole external surface of the skin, and in all sensitive in-
ternal organs, that is in all parts which yield a sensation on being wounded or
irritated The destination of the terminal apparatus is here, however, reversed,
as compared with the nerves of the muscles, inasmuch as in the nerves of sen-
sation the apparatus through which their current produces its sensitive effect is
placed at the inner extremity in the spine and brain, while the organization
connected with the outer extremity is destined to render the nerve susceptible
of excitation by certain external agents. If we irritate a nerve of sensation, the
optic nerve for instance, at any point of its course, as by compressing or electri-
fying it, a current flows to both ends of the irritated nerve: that which arrives
at the inner extremity takes effect on the appropriate apparatus and produces in
it a wholly unknown condition, whose result, as regards consciousness, is a sen-
.
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 255
sation of light ; the current, on the other hand, which is transmitted to the outer
extremity of the fibre situated in the globe of the eye, meets there with no ap-
paratus by which it can manifest any effect of a phenomenal nature. If, there-
fore, we divide the optic nerve near the brain, so as to sever its collective fibres
from their terminal apparatus in the central nerve system, all irritation applied
between the point of division and the outer extremity remains ineffectual, and no
sensation can arise, just as no intelligence can be transmitted to a telegraph
station between which and the place of operation the wire has been sundered.
Heretofore it was thought that generally a nerve of sensation was capable only
of conducting a current in one direction, namely, from its external to its internal
extremity, while the nerve of motion, on the other hand, had no conducting
capacity except in the opposite direction. At present, we know with certainty
that every nerve fibre is alike, qualified to conduct in both directions, the earlier
and erroneous view having arisen from the circumstance that no means were
known for demonstrating that the current may, in a nerve of sensation, be prop-
agated towards the outer extremity, and, in a nerve of motion, towards the inner
one, and hence the fact was rashly denied. Now that we possess an admirable
expedient for rendering the existence of a current perceptible at any point of a
nerve, we know that, for example, the optic nerve can conduct a current from
the brain to the globe of the eye, though we also know that in life no current is
conducted in this direction, because at the central extremity of the nerve there
exists no apparatus of excitation; and even were an irritant applied at that
extremity the current flowing outwardly must remain without effect, because at
the external extremity there exists no apparatus adapted to the manifestation of
its activity and the production of the related phenomena.
If we now ask further, how it happens that excitation of the optic nerves al-
ways produces a sensation of light, excitation of the auditory nerves a sensa-
tion of sound, and therefore by what causes single nerves are adapted to the
transmission of different specific sensations, but one general answer can be
given in advance. Formerly a solution was supposed to have been found by
ascribing to each different nerve a different specific faculty, which was called
its ‘‘ specifie energy,” without proof, and without further explanation of the ex-
pression. At present, when clearer views have been obtained of the properties
and powers of the nerves, a conviction has prevailed that all nerve-fibres pos-
sess like essential properties, and therefore like capacities for action. If this be
the case, the causes of the difference in their actual operation should be sought
for solely in the apparatus on which they operate; and we must suppose that
what occurs in the excited optic nerve is the same with what occurs in the ex-
cited auditory nerve, and also in the nerves of motion, but that at the ex-
tremity of the first there is an appropriate apparatus which converts the ner-
vous current into a sensation of light, at the extremity of the auditory nerve
another which produces from the same current a sensation of sound, while the
union of other nerves with the muscles enables the current to accomplish the
phenomenon of motion. Mankind in general are disposed to believe, without
closer inquiry, that the optic nerve transmits its peculiar sensation because it is
stimulated by light, as does the nerve of hearing, because it is stimulated by
sound, &c.; but it is easy to prove that the difference in the effect produced is
not dependent on the difference in the means of excitation. Electricity is an
irritant which stimulates all the nerves, but when we excite the optic nerve by
an electric stroke, a sensation of light is invariably the result, as is that of sound
when the auditory nerves are similarly assailed, the same agent of excitation
thus producing a different effect, and in the case of each nerve the effect proper
to it, which we must therefore regard as being determined by the nature of the
apparatus of the inner extremity. If we examine this apparatus in different
nerves with a view to detect supposed differences, we at once encounter the
hitherto inexplicable riddle before referred to. So far as microscopic examina-
256 ON THE SENSES.
tion goes, it reveals to us, at the end of all the nerves of sensation in the brain
and spinal marrow, organizations in which we seek in vain to distinguish any
essential difference. Everywhere, there are seen the seemingly simple nucleated
bulbs which we have designated as nerve-cells, and singularly enough they are
to appearance the same bulbs which we find at the inner extremity of the nerves
of motion, but which, as regards the latter, we have learned to consider as or-
ganisms for producing excitation, not as in the case of nerves of sensation or-
ganisms upon which the excited nerve is destined to operate, and through which
its phenomenal action is manifested. And yet differences must exist, since it
is incredible, even upon the most strictly spiritualistic principles, that an imma-
terial soul should be capable, from the same processes in the nervous matter, of
creating for itself different sensations. The procedure by which a sensation of
light is produced in the mind must of necessity be different from that by which
a sensation of sound or of touch is provoked. If we can detect no such differ-
ences in the terminal apparatus of the nerves, the fault lies with our present de-
fective means of investigation, and we must await further light from future
researches.
Having thus seen that a numerous class of nerves are adapted by the nature
of their inner terminal apparatus to become the vehicles of sensation, it remains
for us to cast a glance at their outer terminations and the arrangements there
provided. Here we find those wonderful adaptations, the organs of sense, of
whose destination something has already been said. The capacity of the optic
nerve, by virtue of its interior apparatus, to produce on being excited the per-
ception of light, would be of little account if the nerve lay bare to the day, so
as to respond by a sensation of light at the solicitation of every casual excite-
ment, whether proceeding from a blow, from heat, cold, electricity, or chemical
agency. It becomes, however, of inestimable value when the nerve, besides
being adapted to one only definite kind of excitement, is carefully sheltered
from every other, and when this specific excitement is one to which all other
nerves are insensible. The optic nerve is destined for excitation through the
undulations of light, and is provided at the end directed towards the outward
world with the organs necessary for that purpose. Those undulations form na-
turally its sole and exclusive means of excitation, and are hence designated in
science as the “adequate” irritant of the optic nerve. Only thus is it possible
for the excitability of this nerve to convey to the sensorium an authentic im-
pression of the outward world, so far as it is to be derived from the definite ex-
ternal agent, light. But how imperfect were the communications of the visual
nerve if it simply apprised us of the presence and absence of light, and, perhaps,
through the degree of excitation, of the intensity of its beams, if the only
function of our eyes were to distinguish daylight and darkness! How vastly
is their value enhanced through their power of placing external objects before
us in an endless diversity of shapes, magnitudes, and colors! We can here
only depict with a few strokes the principle of those exquisite performances
which we hope hereafter to discuss in a more detailed manner. ‘The first con-
dition of this action is the capacity of the optic nerves to produce those differ-
ently qualified sensations which correspond to the different sorts of external
light, that is to say, to the waves of different lengths formed by the vibrating
particles of light, and which induce in our minds the perception of different
colors. Each perception of color corresponds to a wave of the vibrating light-
element of determinate length. That through this faculty alone the circle of
intimations which the mind receives by meang of the nerves of vision is greatly
widened is at once evident. But as thus far we have spoken of one nervous
current in general, as of one like process in all nerves, it is now proper to sug-
gest aslight modification of this expression, without thereby vitiating, however,
our comparison of the electric and the nervous currents. It is, indeed, very con-
ceivable, and even probable, that the “current” in the nerves of motion which
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 57
occasions the contraction of the muscles, is the same with that in the optic nérve
through which the latter produces a sensation of light; the wholly unlike effects
of the currents of both nerves may be completely explained by the difference of
the apparatus on which they operate. But it is impossible that in one and the
same fibre of the optic nerve exactly the same current should evoke now the
sensation of red and now of blue light, according as the extremity of the fibre
is struck by one or the other of the corresponding undulations; yet we know
with absolute certainty that the very same fibre really produces differently qual-
ified sensations of color, and that there are not fibres, some for the transmission
of red and others of blue light. Since, then, one and the same sort of nervous
current in the same fibre, with the same terminal apparatus, can by no possi-
bility produce different effects, we must necessarily assume that there exist just
as many modifications of the nervous current for the fibre of the optic nerve as
we experience different qualities in sensations pertaining to color. Wherein
these modifications consist we are not at present in a condition to explain, but -
we may with confidence assert that they can by no means pertain to processes
essentially differing from one another, but are rather slight modifications of a
process which is substantially one and the same. To this conclusion we are
not led by observation of the results, that is to say, of the different sensations;
for the sensations of blue and of red color are so little comparable with one an-
other, that without other proofs of the relation we could scarcely infer from
themselves that they are only different modifications of the same principle. It
is by a comparison of the external and qualifying causes that we are gmded to
the above conclusion. Since we know that the sensations of red and of blue
color are occasioned by the vibrations of the same luminous ether, and that it is
only a small difference in the length of the-waves of the vibrating medium
which causes the qualitative difference of the sensations, we must also conclude
that the qualities of the nervous currents differ as inconsiderably from one an-
other as the external causes. It might be conjectured that the difference im
the sensations proceeds only from a difference of velocity in the nervous current;
but we guardedly use the word “conjectured” to avert the possibility of what is
merely a suggestion being regarded as an assertion.
The most important function of the eye is certainly that by which it affords a
perception of the relative position of the objects from which the rays of light
are directed upon it. For this purpose there is placed before the superficial ex-
pansion of the outer extremities of the fibres of the optic nerve the retima, a
complete optical apparatus, a camera obscura, which delineates on this surtace
formed by the ends of the nerves a small and distinct image of the objects be-
fore the eye, just as the camera obscura of the photographer projects such an
image on the blank plate or sensitive collodion in the rear.. On the structure of
this natural camera obscura we need not here dilate. In the mere presence, in-
deed, of an image of external objects on the retina there lies no effective reason
that the image should be perceived as such; on the contrary, it is clear that there
can be here no question of direct perceptions of space or proportion; the ques-
tion with which we have to deal is this: how do the sensations occasioned by
an image connect themselves with such localizing representations as correspond
with the actual local relations of the object? 'This takes place after the follow-
ing manner: like the small stones in a Roman mosaic, the delicate points con-
stituting the extremities of the optic nerve-fibres are disposed near one another
in the above-mentioned surface of the eye in regular order. Jf one such point
receive an impression of light there arises in the nerve-fibre proceeding from
that point a current of excitation which is propagated to’ the brain, but which,
(and this is a most important law,) being confined to this one fibre, remains “is- _
olated,” and is not taken up by the other fibres of the trunk of the optic’nerve
lying in immediate contact with the former. Now, if two different points re- —
ceive simultaneously two different impressions from the light, so that two mi- —
17s
258 ON THE SENSES. Ae
nute images fall at two different places on the retina, a nervous current will be
directed from either point along the respective fibres to the brain, and each will
produce its separate, and not a blended, sensation. Thus the mind, from two
impressions, when different fibres are excited, acquires two sensations, and from
three impressions three separate sensations; but the divided sensation conveys
no immediate perception of a relative position. The place at which the three
particles of light struck the retina, the situation of the ends of the irritated
nerves, forms no part of the sensation; from the mere sensation we obtain no in-
telligence whether the rays of light struck the retina in a right line or angu-
larly, or how widely separated are the points from which they proceeded. At
the knowledge of these relations of space the mind first arrives by more circuit-
ous processes. We must imagine that the sensations which the individual nerve
fibres produce are distinguished from one another,in some manner which cannot
be clearly indicated ; that the sensation of blue light, for instance, always bears
with it, according to the fibre excited, a certain definite token, which, while it is
constant for that one fibre, is distinguishable from the token of every other
fibre. It is from these tokens that the mind learns to form for itself represent-
ations of relative position ; or, in other words, learns to refer every such token
to a determinate place in its instinctive representation of space, and consequently
to assign every sensation, which is accompanied by this token, to the corre-
sponding place in the space-picture. When, therefore, as was above supposed,
three separate sensations of light arise simultaneously from three impressions,
each of the impressions bears with it that localizing token, according to which
the mind forms for itself a representation or idea of the relative situation and
distance of the points from which the irritating rays proceed. If it be the
image of a candle flame which falls on the retina, the separate sensations
which arise are as many in number as the ends of the nerves irritated, and these
separate sensations disclose through their localizing tokens that the exciting im-
pressions lie near one another in the form of aflame. In what manner the mind
learns to refer the visual sensations with the attending representations of posi-
tion to objects exterior to the body and from which the rays proceed, to give
them odjectivity, in a word, has been shown above. It is needless to say that
the mind originally knows nothing of the image on the retina as an object of
sight, nor is aware of its presence; scientific research has first shown its exist-
ence and causative relation to the perceptions of light.
Thus much we have thought proper to say, by way of example, respecting
the purpose and structure of the apparatus adapted to the exterior terminations
of the nerves of sensation; it would detain us too long to dwell at present upon
other provisions of this sort, such as that by which the undulations of sound are
converted into a suitable irritant for the nerves of hearing, &e. Wereturn from
this digression upon the general physiology of the nerves and senses to a more
particular consideration of the sense of feeling, with a hope that the foregoing
discussion may have rendered what we have to say upon that and other special
topics more easily intelligible.
Nearly all parts of our body are furnished with nerves of feeling—that is,
with nerves whose excitation, through its effect on the cells at the interior ter-
mination of the nervous fibres, produces some one of the above recited sensa-
tions of feeling; and indeed there is one quality'of such sensations which all
these nerves are capable of generating, and which is therefore characteristic of
them—the sensation, namely, of pain. Hence, would we ascertain, respecting
any branch of nerves in the body, whether it contains any fibres of sensation,
we have only to search for it in a living animal and observe whether the irrita-
tion of it is followed by indications of uneasiness, (outery, attempt at flight,)
a kind of experiment which, in the eyes of the laity, has rendered the ideas of
physiologist and cruelty almost inseparable, but with as little justice, on the
& “THE SENSE OF FEELING. 259
‘
whole, as the association which, in the mind of a child, connects the physician
with the suffering which it is his purpose to relieve.
Still, were the function of the nerves of feeling limited to the production of
pain, we could blame no one for incredulity in regard to their utility. ‘There are
a great number, however, of the nerves of feeling, and, indeed, all those whose
outer terminations are imbedded in the skin of the general surface of the body,
and in the mucous membrane of the cavity of the mouth, which, besides the
general feeling of pain under certain conditions, are destined, through a more
than ordinary activity, to produce those peculiar modifications of feeling which,
from their external causes, we denominate sensations of pressure and tempera-
ture, and which, on grounds above indicated, we contradistinguish from the com-
mon feeling as true sensations of the sense of touch. he nerves of the outer
skin and of the mucous membrane of the mouth we term, therefore, nerves of
touch. A pressure applied to the skin gives rise not only to the corresponding
sensation of pressure, but to the perception of an object which presses, as well
as of its form and size. ‘Touching the skin with a moderately warm or cold
body imparts a feeling of warmth or cold. On the other hand, if a muscular
part, which likewise possesses nerves of sensation, be laid bare by incision,
there results, not a sensation of pressure, but of pain; not the idea of an in-
cisive object, but only a consciousness of subjective hurt; so, too, from the touch
of a hot body there results, not a feeling of warmth, but of pain On what con-
‘ditions these functional activities of the nerves of the skin depend may be shown
by a simple and easily repeated experiment. These nerves produce the specific
sensations of pressure and temperature above referred to, then only, when the
external irritants, whether of pressure, of heat, or of cold, operate upon the
ends of the nerves existing in the skin, but not when those irritants act upon
the nerve-fibres in their intermediate course between the skin and the prain.
The nerves of sensation which terminate in the skin of a part of the finger be-
come combined in their passage to the brain into one stem, which, at the place
‘of the elbow, called by Germans “das Mauschen,” runs deep under the outer
skin. Now, if we dip the finger of a hand in cold water we perceive a sen-
sation of cold; but if, on the other hand, we immerse the elbow in the same
water, though a sensation of cold is at first felt through the skin, after some
moments, when the cold has penetrated the skin and reached the nerve-stem be-
low, there arises a sensation of pain, which has nothing in common with that of
cold, and suggests no idea of an external cold object as cause of the uneasiness.
How is this to be accounted for? ‘The same irritant operating on the same:
nerve-fibres, and with so different a result! The difference is founded in this:,
that, at the extremitzes of the nerves on which the cold acts in the skin of both
finger and elbow, an organic apparatus exists, which, set in action by the appli-
cation of cold, produces in the nerve-fibres a peculiar sort of current, which con-
veys to the brain a sensation of cold. If, on the other hand, the cold strikes
these nerve-fibres in their passage, it occasions, indeed, an excitation; but, as
here the apparatus is wanting to effect a modification of the excitement, only the
ordinary nerve-current is set in motion, which communicates the simplest sen-
sation, the common feeling, namely, of pain. The same is the result in the case
of pressure, which, producing at the extremities only a sensation of pressure,
occasions pain when applied to the stem. In making the experiment mentioned,
another noticeable distinction will occur to every attentive observer. On im-
mersing the fingers we perceive the cold in the portions of skin touched by the
cold water; with bandaged eyes we can exactly determine from the sensation
on which finger and what parts of the same the cold takes effect. In dipping
the elbow, however, till pain arises, we feel this pain, strangely enough, not at
the place which is immersed, but in the skin of the hand and finger; in like
manner. these are the parts which pain us when we strike that portion of the
260 ON THE SENSES.
elbow under which runs the nerve in question; and thus, likewise, it is the foot
and toes which are benumbed when, by pressure on that part of the thigh under
which lies the nerve running ta those members, the feeling is produced which
we call being “asleep.” Thus, while with the sensations of touch there is con-
nected a right perception of the point at which the exciting cause operates, there
is a false perception in the case of the common feeling of pain; we transfer the
place of uneasiness to those parts where the nerves of the irritated member
terminate. A striking instance of this erroneous transposition is frequently wit-
nessed in cases of amputation; if the ends of the divided nerves in an amputated
arm or leg become irritated, it is usual for the patient to feel the pain in the
finger or toes of the removed member. The error is easily explained if we in-
vestigate the origin of the localizing sensation. In no sensation, either that of
touch or of pain, is the perception of place originally comprised; we can have
as little direct perception of a place as of an object; we acquire only indirectly
and mediately, by help of the sensation, an idea of the place of excitationand of
an exciting external object. The origination of both ideas is intimately con-
nected. Further on, when we specially consider the sense of place, (Ortsinn,)
it will be shown that the localization of a sensation of touch and the perception
“of space through the sense of touch depend on analogous conditions, as we have
_already incidentally stated in regard to the perception of space through the sense
of sight. In like manner, every sensation of touch has, for each fibre which
causes it, a peculiar sign or token from which we learn to form the idea of the
situation of the terminal point of that fibre in the skin, and we soon attain a pro-
ficiency which enables us instantaneously to distinguish the local sign which
corresponds with the sensation. But the same sign also accompanies the sensa-
tion generated by any particular fibre when this is irritated, not at its extremity,
but at some point in its passage; no wonder then that the mind is deceived, and
assigns the origin of the sensation to that point to which, by the customary
token, it has been taught at first to refer it. Thus the pain communicated by
the nerve-fibres of the elbow is referred to all the points in which those collective .
Gbres terminate. That, moreover, it is only the sensations of touch and tem-
perature—sensations arising from excitation of the ends of the nerves in the skin—
which relate to outer objects, while the sensations of pain, on the other hand, are
always subjective, may be shown in the following manner, thus establishing a
still wider and substantial difference between the two classes of sensations—
that of touch and that of common feeling. We learn to distinguish external
objects as causes of sensation by satisfying ourselves of the endless variations
of the sensation arising from the movement of the sensitive parts of our body
towards exterior objects, or of those objects towards our organs of sensation.
That we arrive at this knowledge is owing to two essential conditions: first,
that our organ of touch, the sensitive surfaces of our skin, are, in the highest
degree angi the most different directions, movable; and secondly, that we pos-
sess a peculiar, but generally unnoticed sense, which continually apprises us
that our limbs are in a state of rest or of .motion; and if the former, what is
their actual position; if the latter, what is the extent and direction of the move-
ment. Close your eyes and execute all possible movements, you will be always
and accurately conscious what motion has been performed by each member,
what has been at each moment the relative position of each limb in regard to
every other.
To return to the important help afforded by this sixth sense in the operations
pertaining to touch: the organs of this sense are the muscles, each of which in
acting, or by the contraction through which the points of attachment at its ends
are brought nearer together, produces a sensation whose intensity is proportional
to the effort and the extent of the actual contraction. ‘The mind learns to in-
terpret these feelings of effort like other sensations; it ascertains that, with every
A
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 261
change of position of the limbs, a sensation of definite quality and intensity is
connected, and hence, when experience is sufficiently matured, involuntarily
associates with every such sensation a correct idea of the nature and extent of
the corresponding movement. How, now, do those sensations of movement
co-operate with the sensations of touch in the formation of objective ideas? We
experience that one and the same movement, of the hand, for instance, and
therefore one and the same feeling of movement is at one time connected with
a sensation of touch, and at another is not, (according as some external object is
or is not encountered,) and we thence conclude, in the first place, that the sen-
sation of touch is no essentially concomitant phenomenon, no invariable conse-
quence of the sensation of movement. We further experience that often, in the
conscious and entire rest of our limbs, a sensation of touch arises, (if an object.
be brought into contact with our organs of touch,) that the state of rest still
continuing, the sensation changes, and different organs of touch became succes-
sively sensitive, (if the object be moved along the surfaces of this species of sen-
sibility.) We experience, finally, that if by a movement a sensation of touch
commences, the same becomes changed, on further movement, in various ways,
both qualitative and quantitative. It is evident that all these experiences must
force upon us the inference that the causes of our sensations of touch are ex-
ternal; that the movement of the limbs brings our organs of touch into commu-
nication with different outward excitants of sensation. From these external ob-
jects of touch we learn to distinguish, as belonging to our own body, those whose
touch produces a double sensation, as well in the part touching as in that which
is touched. Ifa part of our body be insensible, it seems to the touching finger,
provided no other sense correct the illusion, to be a foreign and external object.
Thus it often happens that through protracted pressure in sleep on the nerves
of the arm, the latter is rendered, for a time, so entirely insensible that when, on
awaking, the arm which is “asleep” is touched with the hand of the other, we
can scarcely but believe that it is the arm of a stranger with which our hand
has come into contact. .
Finally, we might here adduce an important general distinction between the
sense of touch and of pain, drawn from the relations of both to the exciting cause.
How sensitive an apparatus of measurement as regards pressure and temperature,
is our organ of touch; what small degrees of: pressure, what slight changes of tem-
perature does it indicate! Not that, like the thermometer and barometer, it an-
nounces the absolute amount of the weight pressing upon the skin, or of the tem-
perature of a medium to which it is exposed; but it informs us by sensations, to
which we can assign no numerical value, whether the skin is compressed or
stretched, whether heat be supplied or withdrawn, and the perfection of its per-
formances rests chiefly on this, that of two pressures or temperatures taking
effect one after the other on the skin, it can rightly discriminate the higher and
lower, even to slight differences. How exactly, besides, does the duration of
a sensation of touch correspond with the duration of the exciting cause; it has,
indeed, been observed that the sensation does really endure for a minute point
of time longer than, for instance, the actual compression of the skin, but the
duration of this excess is so inappreciably small as not to detract sensibly from
the exact synchronism of the touch and the sensation. If we pass a finger
rapidly over sandstone, we distinctly feel that the surface is rough and beset
with prominences, and why? Because we are able to distinguish the alternation
of impressions caused by the minute projections and the pauses in those sensations
produced by the intervening depressions, however short these pauses may be
rendered by rapidity of movement. How different is it in these respects with
the common feeling of pain. In the first place, for its excitation, proportionably
far higher degrees of external influence are requisite; at the same points of the
skin where the slightest pressure or the least alternations of heat and cold are
> ON: THE SENSES.
promptly perceived, noinconsiderable amount of either must be present in order to
produce pain. Next, the degree of pain by no means maintains so exact a pro-
portion to the degree of the excitement; they do not observe so parallel a
course that from the intensity of the pain we can form a certain determination
respecting the magnitude of the exciting cause. Finally, the relative duration
of the pain and of its cause depends on very different conditions; the pain often
first arises long after the access of the cause which provokes it, and outlasts the
latter in many cases for a considerable time, as we need not show by special
examples.
We hope that this general outline has sufficiently satisfied our readers of
the important characteristic differences between the proper perceptions of the
sense of touch and of the common feelings produced by the nerves of sensa-
tion. We turn now to a closer consideration of the individual action of ‘those
nerves, and especially to the operations of the sense of touch.
As it has been above stated that the sensations of touch, and hence the per-
ceptions of pressure. of warmth and of cold, only arise when the corre-
sponding irritants act in a moderate degree upon the ends of the nerves in the
outer skin and the cavity of the mouth, the task which next awaits us is to in-
quire into the nature of these outer ends, to seek, with the help of the micro-
scope, to discover the structure of those terminal points which we regard as or-
gans of sense, in order to explain, if possible, the specific action which is only
exerted from those outward points. But, alas, respected reader, no satisfactory
solution of this important problem has as yet proved practicable to science.
With the best microscopes it is extremely difficult, and in many cases wholly
impossible, to follow the individual nerve-fibres to their final terminations ; we
often see them, after growing extremely thin and pale, disappear among the
elements of the tissue into which they enter, without our being able to say
what has become of them. Until lately we possessed, regarding the destina-
tion of the nerves in the skin, scarcely anything more than conjectures, and of
these the two principal were contradictory. According to the one the nerves
terminated in loops—that is, they were bent round under the cuticle, and the
fibres thus bent returned again into the nerve stem; according to the other, the
ends in which the fibres terminated were free. Recently, the latter conjecture
has been fully confirmed, no less by direct observation than upon physiological
groyads, in which the free termination was @ priori assumed as a postulate;
but the nature of the free extremities and the structural arrangements which we
must suppose to be connected with them remained, till even a recent day, just
as obscure in regard to the skin as to other organs of sense. Within a short
time past, however, we are indebted for much light to the investigations of a
physiologist of great merit, R. Wagner, and his scholar Meissner. For their
better comprehension we must premise that the skin consists of two distinct
layers; the outer, superficial cuticle (epidermis,) which appears to be only a
protective covering, consists of merely flat microscopic plates or seales over-
laying and connected with one another. As the exterior layers of this cuticle
are constantly wearing away and falling off, they are still replaced by new
layers which form on the under side. The second or proper skin, the cutis
(Jederhaut,) is a closely interwoven tissue, whose substratum is a somewhat soft
mass penetrated by numberless small and flexible fibres. In this mass, which
gives to the skin its firmness as well as extensibility, a network of fine
blood-vessels is imbedded; nerve-stems also enter it in great number and pass
with many convolutions towards the upper surtace of the cutis, where the sin-
gle nerve-fibres become disentangled and terminate close under the euticle. ‘The
surface, where the lower skin is bounded by the cuticle, is by no means a smooth
or even one, but is beset with countless cone-shaped prominences, which fit, as
the fingers do in a glove, into corresponding cavities of the cuticle. It is into
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 263
these prominences, called papille, that the nerve-fibres enter, and it is in these
that we are to seek their free extremities. Attempts had accordingly been long
made, but in vain, to follow the nerves under the microscope to their termina-
tion in the papillee; it was reserved for the above-named observers to desery, at
certain points of the skin, and just those indeed which are distinguished by the
finest sense of touch, as, for instance, the inner side of the finger ends, the ap-
propriate apparatus in which the nerves of feeling terminate. They found that
in all the papillee, into which nerve-fibres enter from the deeper portion of the
skin, there exist small soft bulbous bodies, seemiugly filled with fluid ; that to
each of these little bulbs one, two, or even three nerve-fibres find their way,
penetrate its walls at some ,point, and having entered, each becomes divided
into a tuft of very delicate branches, which branches again run off each into a
fine point. These bulbs with their tufts of nerve-branches have received the
name in German, of ‘“tastkérperchen,” (touch-corpuscles,) because they un-
avoidably suggested to the discoverers a close connexion with the operation
of the nerves to which they are attached, and for which they presumably serve
as sense-organs. But if we ask what takes place in the bulbs, how they oper-
ate as an intermediary between the outward exciting cause and the extremities
of the nerves, we remain at a loss for an answer. We are not yet able to in-
dicate even in a general way the mode of operation of these wonderful organs,
nor have we a full understanding of their mechanism. We have shown above
that for an explanation of the origin of those specific sensations of pressure and
temperature which only arise through an excitation of the extremities of the
nerves, we must suppose a peculiar apparatus for those extremities, by the in-
tervention of which the correspoading and appropriate modifications of the ner-
vous current are effected. The hope of finding this apparatus in the corpus-
cles just referred to vanishes, when we see that these corpuscles only occur
in very circumscribed portions of the skin, while the sensations of touch may
be elicited from the whole surface. -We have seen that for an explanation of
perceptions relating to space, it must be supposed that each fibre possesses
some peculiarity in its excitation, which serves for the mind as a local sign or
token. The office of impressing this token on the fibres cannot possibly be
ascribed to the corpuscles in question, as well because the latter only occur in
limited places as because these local tokens, as we have seen, also accompany
the excitation when the fibres are excited, not at their extremities, but in their
intermediate passage. After amputation of a limb, the pain is referred to the
no longer existing part in which the ends of the excited nerves were once situ-
ated. Lastly, we find in places of the skin which possess these corpuscles no
action different from that of places which at least do not seem to possess them.
In short, we are forced to confess that: here are organs which we do not under-
stand, and the value of their discovery remains to be determined hereafter.
Inasmuch as the operations of the sense of touch consist in the prodaction
of sensations of pressure and. of temperature, each of which constitutes a peculiar
sphere of intelligence for the mind, we draw a distinction between a sense of pres-
sure and a sense of temperature. Inasmuch as‘each sensation of pressure and
temperature is attended by a perception of the place of the skin whence it is ex-
cited, and with this perception again a peculiar circle of intimations is associated,
we establish by the side of the former a sense of decality, (ortsinn,) though it
must always be recollected that the perception of place is not a sensation like
those of pressure and of temperature, but only a mediate idea connecting itself
with those sensations, from which indeed it is acquired.
We first turn our attention to the sense of pressure. The proximate cause
of a sensation of pressure is either a pressure by which the portions cf skin
between the nerve-ends and the object exerting the pressure are more or less
compressed, or a negative pressure or traction by which a stretching of the skin
264 ON THE SENSES.
is effected. It is highly probable that the quality of the simple sensation is
precisely the same in both cases. We learn only from circumstances, especially
from the accompanying muscular feeling, whether pressure or pulling, compres-
sion or stretching of the skin, has occasioned the sensation, and associate with
the idea corresponding to the sensation that of the direction of the force moving
the portions of skin—an idea which, as well as many others, we falsely regard
as essentially a part of the sensation. Every one thinks he sees the direction
in which a ray of light comes to the eye, and thus the direction in which a
visible object lies; that he hears in what direction a sound reaches his ear,
because the idea of the direction, to which in these respects the muscular feel-
ing chiefly contributes, connects itself immediately and unconsciously with the
sensation of light or of sound. The bare sensation can, in itself, just as little
express the direction of the exciting force as the electric current, which moves
the index of the telegraph, can furnish an indication of the direction from which
it proceeded. A simple example will illustrate the formation of such an idea of
direction in the case of sensations of touch. If some one plucks us by the
hair, without our seeing him, we immediately conceive the direction in which
he has drawn us, but not from the sensation, not even mediately from this, but
from the feeling which arises in those muscles of the neck that offer resistance
to the turning of the head in consequence of the traction ; and it is again neces-
sary that we should have previously learned from experience to interpret all
these muscular feelings, so as to know with what movement each of them is
connected. “That it is really the muscular feeling from which we divine the
direction of the traction, is evident from the fact that we no longer know that
direction, when our head is so firmly held by a third person as to prevent its
following the communicated impulse.
For compression of the skin to produce a sensation of pressure, it is neces-
sary that the former should not fall below a certain degree of intensity nor rise
above another certain degree.
Pressure, if too strong, creates, instead of such sensation, pain; if too light
it does not excite the nerves; we feel not, for instance, the pressure which a
small bit of paper exerts by its weight on the skin, especially not on the parts
of the latter where the epidermis is of greater thickness and hence embarrasses
the propagation of the pressure to the ends of the nerves in the under skin.
Within these limits of intensity but one and the self-same sensation, as to qual-
ity, is produced by whatsoever pressure; no matter by what force or by what
object the latter is occasioned, whether the organ of touch move towards the
object or this towards the organ, and the pressure be thus created by the resist-
ance of either to the movement of the other, there is in effect only one kind
of sensation as regards pressure. ‘This assertion may sound strangely to one
not conversant with such discussions, who has been accustomed to assume that
it is from the different qualities of the sensation arising from the touch of an
object that he forms a judgment of the properties of such object, the material
of which it consists, &c. Yet is it one and the same kind of sensation upon
which is founded the perception of roughness and smoothness, hardness and
softness, dryness and moisture, &c.; the self-same sensation of pressure arises
whether the object touched be of wood, metal, gum or clay. What enables us
to know those properties and materials may be made clear by a single example.
If with closed eyes you receive a ball in your hand, a moment’s examination by
touching enables you to pronounce a complete judgment respecting it You -
feel that the object is, in form, round; you can perhaps indicate its size, and -
an certainly decide whether it be rough or smooth, heavy or light, hard or
soft, elastic or otherwise ; you can even rightly conjecture whether it consist of
wood or metal. From what impressions do you form this comprehensive judg-
ment, which affords a complete image of the performances of the sense of touch
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 265
in general? To the knowledge of the form and size conduces, partly what we
have termed the sense of place in the skin, which, in a manner to be hereafter
explained, announces the extent and situation of the points of the skin which
are touched, partly the muscular feeling, which, as already shown, represents
to us at every moment the relative position of our members, and informs us in
the present case that the parts of the hand touched by the object enclose an
orbicular space. Were the ball too large to be encircled by the hand the touch-
ing of a section of it would for the most part suffice to convey the idea of rotun-
dity, the known form of part of the surface affording an inference as to the
rest, but a certain determination is arrived at if a finger b& exploringly moved,
here and there, over the surface of the whole object, and the muscular feeling
which one has learned from experience to regard as the inseparable concomitant
of movement in a circle accompanies all these movements. ‘The similarity of
this feeling, in whatever direction the finger be moved over the object, apprises
you that the form corresponds to the conception which you have learned to
form of a ball. Whether the ball be rough or smooth is determined by the
sense of place in the skin; we call it smooth, when the intensity of the sensation
is precisely the same at all the points of the skin, which through the sense just
mentioned, we know to be situated near one another; we call it rough when
several parts of the skin at certain small distances from one another are felt
to be more strongly pressed than the intermediate parts, whence we refer the
occasional stronger impressions to corresponding prominences in the surface
touched. We yet more sensibly distinguish the roughness and smoothness
when we move the finger-end over the surface, to try. whether the successive
impressions made on the same points of the skin are equally strong, or altern-
ately stronger and weaker from gliding over the prominences and depressions.
The weight of the ball is conceived of either directly from the intensity
of the sensation of pressure in those parts of the skin on which it-rests, or
from the intensity of the muscular feeling—that is, from the sensible de-
gree of effort which must be put forth to sustain or raise it. We compare
the weight with the acquired idea of the size of the ball, and thence form a
judgment of its relative heaviness or the specific gravity of the material of
which it is composed. We decide that the ball is hard or soft, elastic or firm,
from the amount of resistance which it opposes to compression, and of the
amount of this resistance we judge from the degree of conscious exertion of the
muscles, and from the increase of strength in the sensation of pressure with
the increasing effort employed to produce compression. If, finally, we ascertain
that relatively to its circumference the weight of the ball is considerable, that
a sensation of cold is communicated, (what that is we shall presently see,) we
conclude that the object is of metal, since we know from experience that it is
to metal these properties pertain. This example will serve to show by what
complex and circuitous processes the comprehensive judgment, which almost
at the moment of the touching stands ready formed before the mind, is elabo-
rated; will serve to show the mechanism of the manifold operations of the soul,
through whose co-operative working, schooled by experience, the raw material
of the mere sensations is, with wonderful rapidity, transformed into an harmo-
nious and colored image which we are accustomed thoughtlessly to receive as
the substance, simply and directly, of the sensation ; will serve, in fine, to show
what part in this is borne by the sensation of pressure with its single charac-
teristic.
Every one knows that the strength of the sensation of pressure corresponds
to the force of the pressure on the skin, the one increasing or decreasing with
the other. Without this proportionality, one of the most valuable functions of
our sense of touch, the comparative estimate, namely, of the force with which
different objects exert a pressure, and consequently the discrimination of weight
266 ON THE SENSES.
would be impossible, or at least in the highest degree uncertain. The apprecia-
tion of pressures according to the intensity of the sensation is tolerably exact
and certain, as we shall presently show; but the scale by which we measure is
in nowise to be compared with the weights from which, with the help of the
balance, we determine the precise numerical value of these same pressures.
We have no scale on which the mind can read the absolute value of a sensation
of pressure of a determinate intensity; we are able, indeed, of two successive
sensations to say which is the stronger, which the weaker; we can decide
whether the intensity differs little or much, but we cannot express this difference
in numerals and prénounce one sensation to be twice, thrice, or half as strong as
another with which it is compared. While undergoing its training, the mind
gradually learns to connect with different sensations the idea of corresponding
differences of intensity in the forces of pressure, and the different degrees of
sensation with the ideas of the corresponding forces become so stamped upon
memory that ata moment’s warning we are in a condition to interpret every such
sensation and to refer it to a certain amount of outward pressure. We form for
ourselves, for instance, an accurate recollection of the sensation which arises
when the weight of pressure stands, as the balance announces, at the ratio of
1 : 2, and in other absolute proportions, and in this way attain a faculty of dis-
crimination, gradually becoming through practice more sensitive and certain,
for amounts and differences of pressure. If we inquire as to the manner in
which we essay the trial of weight by help of the sense of touch, an interest-
ing circumstance must be noticed. It has already been seen that, for the esti-
mate of weights we have in our muscles a second means to which we principally
recur for the trial of greater weights. We lift the object and estimate its grav-
ity by the intensity of the feeling of effort in the exerted muscles, after we
have gradually learned to interpret this feeling in reference to its intensity, as
in the case of sensations of pressure. If, therefore, we would employ the latter
only in the trial, we must exclude all aid of the muscular feeling; for which
purpose the organ of proof, the hand, must be fully supported and left at rest
with its back on the support, while the weights to be essayed are laid upon the
palm. For comparison of two different weights the determination is simple
and easy, if both are laid at the same time on two different places of the hand
and the relative weight be estimated by the intensity of the separate sensations
simultaneously excited. But our judgment is more accurate and our power of
discrimination nicer if we deposit the weights, one after the other, on the same
place of the hand, in such manner that the second and actual sensation is
compared: with the first and simply remembered one, instead of two actual
and simultaneous sensations being compared as in the former instance;
indeed, the recollection of the previous sensation is so tenacious that no incon-
siderable interval may elapse between the two trials without rendering our
judgment as regards the first sensation uncertain, and the greater the difference of
the two compared weights, the longer may this interval be without prejudice to
the accuracy of our estimate. If we lay on the hand of an individual whose
eyes are bandaged or averted, so that tke sight shall lend no assistance to the
judgment, first a weight of two ounces, and afterward on the same place
a weight of two and a half ounces, the lapse of two minutes will occasion
no error as to the greater heaviness of the second. If the weights be depos-
ited on the hand in immediate sequence we distinguish with certainty
.fourteen and fifteen ounces as being of different weight, and recognize
which is the heavier. We should observe, however, that the weights to
be compared must be deposited on the same place of the hand;~ were
we to place one of two equal weights on the finger-end, so rich in nerves,
the other on the palm, in which the nerves are so much rarer, we should cer-
tainly decide in favor of the preponderance of the former. Again: it is
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 267
necessary that the base with which the weights rest on the skin should not in
the one occupy a much greater surface than in the other; we cannot accurately
compare two weights, of which the one presses on a few square lines, the other on
the whole surface of the hand. Both these conditions seem to be founded on
the fact that in our judgment we do not closely discriminate between the inten-
sity and the extension of the sensation, but are led erroneously to infer, from
the greater expansion of the feeling or, what is the same thing, from the greater
number of nerve-fibres involved, a greater intensity of pressure. <A third requisite
for accurate appreciation of weight through the sense of touch’is, that the weights
to be compared should have an equal temperature; of two*equal weights, having
different temperatures, we should hold, under circumstances otherwise equal, the
warmer to be the lighter, the colder the heavier, and this probably because the
effect of pressure on the particles of the skin expanded by warmth is differ-
ent from that exerted on the same particles corrugated by cold. Lastly, it will
be readily conceived that in the act of placing both weights on the hand no
greater degree of pressure should be exerted in case of one than the other.
Thus much of the sense of pressure and its offices ; how the mind makes use
of it, what knowledge is derived from its communications, the above examples
sufficiently indicate. To this, and to the closely allied muscular feeling, beyond
all things else, we are indebted for a right conception or idea of force.
We turn now to the second faculty of the sense of touch, the sense of tem-
perature. That we are not able to give a nearer definition of the nature of a
sensation of heat or cold has been already explained in our introduction ; our
next thesis, therefore, is to inquire in what manner these sensations are evoked.
A sensation of this sort arises in general as soon as the temperature proper to
the skin, and maintained by the blood, undergoes a change, either to a higher .
or lower grade. If the temperature of the skin be raised by an accession of
heat from without, an excitation of the ends of the nerves is produced, which
creates the sensation of warmth; if the temperature be lowered by a with-
drawal of heat, there arises a sensation of cold. This is really all that ean be
said about the causes of the sensations in question ; in what manner the in-
crease or dimunition of temperature in the skin surrounding the ends of the
nerves excites these sensations, and determines in the fibres running to the
brain two different modifications of the nervous current corresponding to these
opposite changes; why the alteration of temperature operating on the ends of
the nerves occasions not pain, as is the case when it takes effect on those
nerves in their intermediate course, but the specific sensations above-mentioned
is altogether obscure. We may imagine that warmth expands the particles
around the nerve extremities, as it expands all bodies, while cold is transformed
into an excitant, through the contraction of these same particles; but this is
only a conjecture, which is not proved, and does not satisfactorily answer all
the questions involved.
We possess in the apparatus of these sensations, at the inner extremities of
the nerves of the skin, a sort of thermometer, if we may so express ourselves,
which, like the instrument mentioned, indicates to us the addition or abstraction
of warmth through two different qualities of sensation, and through the inten-
sity of the sensation the degree of the change; but the difference of the two
instrumentalities is sufficiently striking. In the first place, analogous to what
was said in regard to sensations of pressure, our sensations of temperature
admit of no reduction to a graduated scale; we perceive two such sensations to
differ in intensity, but are unable to express the numerical ratio of their inten-
sity. A further difference is the following: In the mercurial thermometer, the
zero of the scale, from which the degrees of heat upwards, of cold downwards,
are reckoned, corresponds to a definite and constant height of the column—to
that indeed which it occupies when the metal has the temperature of melting
268 ON THE SENSES.
ice. It is otherwise with our thermometer of sensation. Here it is not a sen-
sation of determinate quality and intensity which, in a certain manner, repre-
sents zero; it is the absence of all feeling of temperature; it is nothing positive,
therefore, like the measured height of the mercurial column, but something
negative which exists between a sensation of heat and of cold. This repose of
sensation occurs not when the skin has acquired some definite and absolute de-
gree.of temperature, but when that temperature, whether high or low, remains
unchanged, while a change immediately produces a sensation of the kind in
question, and this sensation again only subsists as long‘as the addition or ab-
straction of heat, but ceases when the temperature becomes stationary at any
supposed degree. Our animal thermometer thus indicates, not the grade, but
the change of temperature in the skin. It follows, of course, that what we
have designated as the zero of the sensational scale is inconstant. If we dip
our hand in water of some ten degrees of temperature we feel at first cold, be-
cause the water is colder than the skin, and abstracts heat from it; but after a
time, when the temperature of the skin and water has become equalized, the
sensation ceases. If we let the hand rest for a short time in water at eight
degrees, which produces a feeling of cold, and then transfer it to water at six-
teen degrees R., we at first feel warmth, because the skin, whose temperature
has been considerably lowered by the first immersion, absorbs heat from the
warmer water; but the feeling is soon transmuted into one of coldness, because
the skin, as soon as it is brought to a temperature of sixteen degrees, takes up
heat from the much warmer blood and gives this over in turn to the water.
Our thermometric sensations are, therefore, an uncertain criterion in judging of
the absolute temperature of external things; and there are circumstances also
under which this uncertainty is increased. If we grasp, in winter, an iron rail,
it seems to us extraordinarily cold, much colder than the air, much colder than
a wooden rail under precisely the same circumstances; and yet it is easily
shown by the thermometer that the three objects possess absolutely the same
temperature, and that hence the judgment founded on our sensations is false.
The ground of this illusion lies in the fact that iron is a very good, wood a
very bad, conductor of heat, whence the former robs our skin of its heat much
more rapidly than the latter. Since we have seen that it is the change of tem-
perature, not its absolute degree, which stimulates the nerves, it will readily be
conceived that a rapid change produces a more intense sensation than a gradual
one—that the feeling of cold is greater when the heat is withdrawn from the
skin in a relatively shorter time. Lastly, there is another circumstance to be
noticed which may be the occasion of deception in our estimate of temperature
through the sense of touch, a circumstance which conduces also to render our
estimate of weights uncertain, and exerts considerable influence on the intensity
of the sensation of pain. Just as two equal weights, when they press upon
surfaces of the skin of different extent, seem to us unequally heavy; so does
the warmth or coldness of an external medium produce in us the impression of
a greater intensity in proportion to the greater extent of the surface on which
it takes effect. If we dip into water at eight degrees of temperature, for in-
stance, the finger-end of one hand and the whole of the other hand, we feel in
the hand wholly immersed a much more intense feeling of cold than in the
finger-end. The ground of this error is probably that above given, that the
mind, from the greater number of nerves simultaneously excited, is betrayed
into the idea of a greater intensity of the sensation.
As all thermometers are not equally sensitive, but the thickness of the walls
of the tube will in some cases prevent an equally rapid transmission of the ex-
ternal temperature and the consequent rise or fall of the quicksilver, so not
every part of our organ of touch is endued with the same sensibility to
changes of temperature in the surrounding medium; and here, too, it is the
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 269
thickness of the envelope which occasions the difference. The thicker the
epidermis, the more slowly does the sensation of warmth or cold penetrate to
the nerve-ends inbedded in the cutis. In the human hand the thickness of the
epidermis is much more considerable in the palm than on the back; when,
therefore, we immerse our hand in cold water, the sensation of cold is sooner
perceived in the back than the palm; but, because a proportionably larger num-
ber of nerves terminate in the latter, the feeling eventually reaches a greater
degree of intensity in the palm than the back of the hand. 'The difference of
two temperatures is? however, appreciable with competent exactness by the
sense of touch, notwithstanding the sources of error which have been noticed ;
if we take two vessels with water of different temperatures and in quick suc-
cession, dip the same finger first in one and then in the other, we can distinguish
which is the warmer, which the colder, if the difference be only.a fraction
4—1) of adegree. But the delicacy of discrimination is not the same with
all persons, and practice greatly improves the exercise of this sense. It is
further to be remarked that we habitually give objectivity to our perceptions of
temperature, as we do to those of pressure, and to all true perceptions of the
sense in question. If we touch an object which abstracts heat from the skin,
it is not the mere subjective sensation, not the idea of a change cf temperature
in the skin, which presents itself to our consciousness, but the immediate idea
of the cold object, to which we impute as a property that quality of our own
sensation which we denominate coldness. Only in the case when no sensation
of pressure accompanies that of temperature, and the skin therefore gives us no
perception of an exciting object, are we sensible of the coldness as something
subjective, as a state of our own sentient organism,
We turn now, in the third place, to the sense of place or posttion—that is, the
faculty of our organs of touch which gives us a perception of the situation, size,
and form of the portions of the skin on which either pressure, or heat or cold,
takes effect. It has already been cursorily noticed by what steps we arrive at
the ideas of position which are connected with the sensation of touch; and we here
recall the most important particulars. First of all, it is to be observed that
there is no room for supposing a direct primary sensation of place; the new-born
child feels at first only the simple sensation of pressure, without learning there-
from that the skin is the place whence the sensation was excited, or recognizing
the part of the skin on which the excitation was produced; it, as yet, knows not
that it possesses in its skin an outspread organ composed of so many distinct points
of sensibility. It is easy to comprehend, moreover, that it cannot be the course
of a nerve-fibre which furnishes the idea of place; that hence it cannot be that
simply because some particular nerve terminates in the leg, for instance, the.
idea of pressure of the leg connects itself with the sensation generated by that
nerve ; in the mere course of the nerve there ean be nothing to determine the
nature of the resulting idea, nothing to qualifv the excitation which acts upon
the mind. If the process in the nerve-fibre be the same, the sensation produced
will also be the same, whatever may be the direction in which the nervous current
is conducied to the brain; just as the movements of the hand of the electro-mag-
netic clock continue the same, whatever the direction of the conducting wire ;
the movements furnish no indication of the origin of the operating current. If,
therefore, the sensation itself gives occasion for the formation of ideas of place,
we are obliged to suppose that through some modification a slight but constant
peculiarity exists for each separate fibre which is stimulated, and that thus the
sensation which is effected by exactly the sane compression possesses a some-
what different shade when it proceeds, not only from widely separated nerves
of the arm or leg, but also from two fibres termininating in close proximity with
one another. ‘These presumed peculiarities of the currents in separate fibres of
the nerves wo have above indicated by the name of local tokens. Through
270 ON THE SENSES.
these are we originally endowed with the possibility of associating ideas of place
with the sensation of touch, but we do not thence derive the ideas themselves.
The child at first receives only the impressions differently toned according to
the place of the excitation ; it gradually learns by circuitous means that the sen-
sation is qualified by the place from which thé excitation proceeds, and that a
particular point in the skin corresponds to each particular token. The interpre-
tation of these local tokens is the result of the joint and reciprocal self-training of
the sense of sight, the sense of touch, and the muscular sense, by which last is
meant the feeling of effort in the muscles moving the limb® a feeling whose in-
valuable services, as regards the point in question, we have before had occasion to
signalize. Were the organs of touch not movable in themselves and in relation to
one another, and were their movements not accompanied by this muscular feeling,
we should be destitute of one of our most important sources of information, and
scarcely in a condition, as we actually are, to judge accurately in regard to the
erformances of our organ of touch. If with the finger of one hand we touch
a point in the palm, for instance, of the other, there arises a feeling in the touch-
ing part as wellas in that touched, each feeling being attended by the local token
appropriate to itself; if we touch with the same. finger another point of the palm,
the local token in the part touched will be a different one. If we move the
finger gradually over the palm we receive a continuous series of sensations with
different tokens. It is not alone that we see the course described by the finger;
we know its extent and direction also from the feelings generated by the moving
muscles, and we thus arrive at the idea that the sensations with the distinctive
local tokens belong to distinct but contiguous points of the skin, while the form
of the movement, whether in a right line or a circle, is made known to us
by this. same muscular feeling. Thus by long and attentive study the mind is
qualified rightly to interpret each local token, and, in the case of two simulta-
neous impressions, to judge correctly of the relative situation and distance of
the two corresponding points of the skin; whence the whole cuticle may be
conceived of as a mosaic of sensitive points, in which we have learned to dis-
tinguish each point by its characteristic coloring, and to refer with the rapidity
of intuition each local token to its definite place within the general outline.
It results from what has been said, that while two simultaneous impressions
on the skin, when the sensations convey different local tokens, give rise to the
idea of two different local excitations, the mind will, on the other hand, neces-
sarily refer both impressions to one place when the tokens are alike, and hence
the resulting sensation will be single. We have further supposed that each
different nerve determines a different shade of sensation, whence it follows that
the sensation oceasioned by each fibre conveys the idea of that.point of the skin
in which the fibre terminates, and that hence pressure at the points, whose com-
pression stimulates one and the same fibre, will generate only one and the same
perception of place. 'This is a supposition which we must here submit to a closer
examination. ‘That one and the same fibre cannot simultaneously convey to the
brain two currents of different quality, or with different local tokens, and. that
hence two sensations cannot be generated at the same time through the same
fibre, is a physiological law, which we must request the reader to take for
granted, as its demonstration here would lead us into too wide a digression.
Another question, however, is, whether in reality each fibre imprints on the sen-
sation a separate stamp; whether, because two different fibres are simultaneously
excited, therefore, the doud/e sensation is necessarily accompanied with a conscious
separation of the impressions. Every one knows that there is not the smallest
portion in the whole surface of the skin which is not sensitive, and which, if
touched with the point of a needle, will not yield a sensation. But each point,
though sensitive, is not endowed with its own nerve; on the contrary, the mi-
croscope shows us that the papilla in which the nerves terminate are separated
THE SENSE OF FEELING. O71
from one another by a greater or less number af papillee which are devoid of
nerves, so that in many parts of the skin there exists quite a considerable inter-
val between the ends of these fibres. With this anatomical fact, however, it is
easy to reconcile the further fact that even those points of the epidermis, situated
over a portion of the cutis which is destitute of nerves, should be perfectly sen-
sitive. In order that the pressure produced, for instance, by a needle’s point
should stimulate the end of a nerve, it must necessarily be propagated through
the whole thickness of the integument under which the nerves occur. This
propagation of the pressure will not take place in a perpendicular direction only,
but will also extend laterally so as to involve to a certain degree the particles of
the skin in proximity with those directly compressed. Just as a circular wave
spreads in the water, when the fall of a stone disturbs however small a part of the
surface, does there arise in the skin, from the pressure of the needle, a propagated
motion which affects the particles within a certain circuit, and not merely in a
perpendicular line. However light the touch or minute the instrument, the wave,
if so we may call it, in the skin is always wide enough to reach the end of a
nerve, even in parts where the nerves are most sparingly distributed. But the
microscope further shows us that a special fibre is not appropriated to each
separate extremity of a nerve, but that frequently the same fibre is divided close
under the skin into several branches, so that in many places a greater or less
extent of the surface (of a line, for instance, in diameter) is supplied with these
nerve-extremities by a single fibre. From which it follows, of course, that
within this extent each single point will be sensitive, and yet if, within that
circuit, we press simultaneously upon two separate points, the two impressions
can produce but one simple sensation, since, however distinct the extremities
of the nerve, the impressions act as an excitant only upon one fibre eommuni-
eating with the brain, and do not, as in the case of a double sensation, convey
through their local tokens the idea of two distinct points of contact.
Few, probably, of my readers have so nicely tested their organ of touch as to
have acquired the knowledge that under certain conditions two simultaneous
impressions on the skin produce but one simple sensation; that the touch of
two points, for instance, may seem but a single touch, when the sense of sight
does not betray us into the belief of a twofold sensation by disclosing its two-
fold origin. A simple and easily repeated experiment will strikingly confirm
the truth of this proposition. Let the eyes of any one, who is not previously
advised of what is intended, be carefully bandaged, in order that there may be
no such betrayal of the judgment as that we have just spoken of; then let a
common but blunt pair of compasses, opened to the extent of half an inch, be
applied to the back of the hand of the person upon whom the experiment is
tried, care being taken that both points shall touch the skin at exactly the same
time. If we now ask the person in question whether the impression be single
or double, we shall with certainty receive the assurance that it is a single one.
Place the points of the compasses, with the same extension, upon the skin of
the finger’s end, and the subject of experiment will et Ss fle and correctly
inform us that the impression is double. If the points be applied to the skin of
the back, we may separate them to the extent of even two inches without
causing the sensation of a double pressure, provided the judgment is unbiassed
and the subject carefully considers the nature of his sensation. Next, let the com-
passes, with the points separated to the distance of } inch and placed perpendicu-
larly to one another, be applied just in front of one ear; the subject will again be
conscious of only a single impression. Now move both points, still preserving the
same distance from one another and in constant contact with the skin, across the
face as far as the other ear; at a certain place in the transit the single sensation
will be felt to change into a double sensation ; as the points approach the mouth it
will seem that they are gradually separating further from one another, and when
oT ON THE SENSES.
on the other side of the face they approach the other ear, the points will seem
anew to draw closer together, and the double impression will presently be again
lost ina single one. How are we to explain these singular effects, and especially
the remarkable illusion in the case last mentioned? In the following manner: the
two points simultaneously applied always and necessarily produce only a single
sensation, whenever, by their pressure, they excite one and the same nerve-fibre;
when both, therefore, touch the skin within one of those circuits whose sensi-
bility is supplied by the same fibre. This proposition is incontrovertible. The
skin is to be regarded as divided into a countless number of these spaces sup-
plied by a single nerve, which have received the name of czrcles of sensation,
(Empfindungskreise;) as a mosaic of such circles, whose size is regulated by the
variable affluence of different portions of the cuticle in sensitive fibres. *The
further these are from one another, and the greater the division to which they
are destined for the supply of the sensibility of the part, the larger in that tract
of the skin are the circles of sensation. Within any one such circle all impres-
sions bear the same local token; two, three, or more impressions, therefore,
which, within the limits of that circle take effect simultaneously upon the skin,
communicate but a single or blended sensation.
It would seem now to be a necessary consequence of these facts, that in-
versely two simultaneous impressions should produce a double sensation and a
perception of local separation, when they take effect on two different circles of
sensation, and thus excite two different nerve-fibres; that hence the two points
of the compasses should always be separately felt when each of them touches a
different circle. In this simple form, however, is the conclusion not tenable—
not consistent with the results of experience, as is shown by the following facts
and observations. If we make the experiment, for instance, on the skin of the
forearm, we find that the separation of the points of the compasses must amount
to at least 18 lines if we would produce a double sensation; that a separation of
16 lines always produces a single one, let the points be placed where and in
whatever direction we will. Should we thence infer that the circles of sensa-
tion of this portion of the skin must have a diameter of 17 lines, we should en-
counter an inexplicable contradiction. If we imagine, for example, these divi-
sions to be squares of 17 lines lateral length, we know from the condition that
every point is sensitive, and that these squares border upon one another without
the least interval. If we conceive now two such coterminous squares, it is
readily seen that the points of the compasses need not be 18 lines apart to touch
at the same time two different squares, but that with a separation of 4 line we
can so place the points that one shall touch a certain square and the other a
second square close to the boundary at which these squares meet. There should
now arise a double sensation, since here the supposed condition of touching two
different circles of sensation is fulfilled, and we ought to be able to detect some
place in the forearm where, with a distance of 4 line, this would be the case.
But as this is not so, as a constant distance of 18 lines in all directions is here
required for a double sensation, the supposed condition cannot be tenable, that
it suffices, namely, to touch two contiguous circles in order to produce such a
sensation. ‘To reconcile, therefore, the facts just cited with the theory of cir-
cles of sensation constituted by the spreading of single nerve-fibres, it has been
found necessary to resort to a further supposition, and to assume, as a condition
of the double sensation, that at least one or more circles which are not touched
must lie between those which are. ‘This, indeed, is a proposition not directly
proved, and which, on close consideration, introduces some further difficulties
into the discussion, but it is the only one as yet by which the facts are recon-
ciled, all others which have been suggested being much less consistent with re-
cognized physiological facts and laws. Agreeably to this hypothesis, the ex-
planation for which we were seeking may be concisely stated in the following
THE SENSE OF FEELING. DA
manner: The two points, when simultaneously applied to the skin, always pro
duce a single sensation, not only when they touch one and the same circle of
sensation, but also when they touch two contiguous ones; the larger the di-
ameter of the circles, so much the more considerable must be the distance in
order to reach beyond the boundaries of two neighboring circles, so that one,
perhaps several, circles which remain untouched shall be included between the
points of the compasses. When this latter case occurs, the double sensation,
the idea of locally separated impressions, seems to result from the circumstance
that the mind has within itself a consciousness of the intervening circles, be they
one or more, which remain untouched ; that in the ideal image of the cuticular
surface which is present to it, the mind, while it assigns a place to each of the
received impressions, perceives that there is a free space between the two which
is characterized by other local tokens. It is this consciousness of the situation
and number of the circles of sensation which also enables the mind to form an
estimate of the distance between the two points of the compasses, as soon as it
acquires a perception of their duality, an estimate, however, which, from ex-
amples before cited, we know to be subject to much error. We mentally esti-
mate the distance in question by the number of the circles of sensation lying
untouched between those to which the points are applied, and this appreciation
can have no absolutely correct value, because the unit of measure on which it
is founded, the diameter of a circle of sensation, is of very variable magnitude,
differing greatly in different parts of the cuticle. Place, for instance, the two
points of the compasses an inch apart, first on the skin of the cheek and then
on that of the finger, and if the same precautions be observed as were before stip-
ulated, the person subjected to the experiment will conceive the distance be-
tween the points to be considerably greater on the finger than on the cheek ;
because the circles of sensation of the finger are much smaller than those of the
cheek, whence in the former more of them lie untouched between the points
than in the latter. In this way also may be easily explained the illusion above
noticed-of the seeming withdrawal of the points further from one another when,
preserving the same distance apart, they are gradually moved from the ear
towards the mouth; the nearer we approach the latter the smaller become the
circles of sensation ; the greater the number of them which passes at the same
time between the points, the greater, therefore, seems to be the separation of
these points.
It is impossible to measure the absolute magnitude of the circles of sensation
in different parts of the skin, because we do not know the number of those cir-
cles which, on the above theory, must remain untouched between the points of
the compasses in order that the sensation should be double. But their relative
magnitude we may measure with considerable accuracy, and thus determine the
comparative delicacy of the sense of place in different portions of the skin ; for
it is obvious that the degree of that sense assigned to any particular portion
must be so much the finer in proportion as the distance between the points of
the compasses can be reduced without a cessation of the divided sensation, or a
blending of the two simultaneous impressions into one. ‘lhese measurements
have been executed with great care by the same eminent physiologist, C. H.
Weber, to whom the whole doctrine of the sense of touch is indebted for its
present form and clearness, as well as for the ingenious theory we have been
discussing. It has been ascertained that the sense of place is most delicate in
the end of the tongue, and next on the inner side of the last finger joints, the
points of the compasses requiring only a separation of 4 line in the former
case, and 1 line in the latter, to produce the double sensation. Much more ob-
tuse is the sense in the second finger joints, still more so in the palm of the
hand, and becoming duller and duller in other parts of the skin, it manifests,
18 s
274 ON THE SENSES.
finally, the greatest degree of obtuseness in the cuticle of the back, the upper
arm, and the thigh.
It is an old and well established usage to inquire into the design of all arrange-
ments in nature, and especially in our own wonderful and complicated or-
ganism, and to judge all observed facts by the principle of conformity to that
design. This theological principle, which to the laity is almost indispensable
in their contemplation of the wonders of creation, and which, not without reason,
seems to them the surest guide to an understanding thereof, has in later times
been warmly attacked ; its value has been denied, and all employment of it in
scientific observation and inquiry been sedulously discarded. We shall not
here attempt to settle this troublesome controversy, nor to decide how much too
far, in one direction or the other, the views of the parties have carried them.
Our readers will not take it amiss, we are sure, if, with the aid of the above
principle, we seek to explain the unequal degree of delicacy of the sense of
place in different parts of the skin, and afford them the opportunity of admiring,
in this connexion, the adaptation and design which everywhere prevail in the
works of nature. We find, then, this sense in the highest perfection precisely
in those parts which, through their arrangement, situation and freedom of move-
ment, are best suited and most clearly destined to the operations of touch.
Observe the functions of your tongue, which you are accustomed only to regard
as an organ of speech and taste, during that most indispensable of acts, eating.
It indefatigably examines by touch the morsel which you are chewing and
separates what is not yet sufficiently comminuted from that which is prepared
for swallowing, brings the former again under the molars for further reduction,
carefully removes from the mass whatever is unsuitable for deglutition, fish-
bones, fruit-stones, &c., and gives you accurate notice of the form and size of
the objects in the cavity of the mouth. All this, whose importance cannot be
mistaken even when it relates to so trivial an affair as mastication, would be
impossible without that exquisite delicacy of the sense of touch which resides
in the tongue. Still more evident perhaps will appear to you that nice discern-
ment of the place of external objects which pertains to the finger-ends, those
pre-eminently active organs of touch, with which you are accustomed to test
everything tangible, and whose services cannot, be replaced by any other portion
of the wide-spread surface endued with sensibility, because no other part is pos-
sessed of so much delicacy combined with such manifold mobility. You may
have often wondered at the accurate decisions of the groping finger of the blind,
in whom that organ seems to have replaced, as far as it can be replaced, the
priceless sense of vision, and you forget that your own finger has exactly the
same power, the same innate and delicate sense of place and position. This
sense, you say, is refined in the case of the blind; but that is only true in so
far as the blind man has been compelled to consider in a more careful manner
the communications of the sense, to devote a more attentive study to the inter-
pretation of its tokens, the translation of the simple sensations into ideas, and
has thence acquired greater practice and certainty in understanding its intima-
tions; the sense itself has become no finer. In your own judgment of the
properties of objects which this sense, assisted by the muscular sense, is ca-
pable of ascertaining, you have been accustomed to allow the sight to interpose
and to modify through its perceptions the ideas derived, as has been shown
above, from the sense of touch. ‘Take in your hand a three-cornered stick of
three inches length with two triangular bases ; your sight informs you, at a
glance, vf all these relations of shape and size. ‘The blind judges of them with
equal accuracy through the sense of touch, as you yourself do if the trial is
made in darkness or with averted eyes. You first take the stick between the
thumb and forefinger, so that the two bases touch the skin of both, and per-
ceive at the moment that you hold a solid body with two triangular bases,
THE SENSE OF FEELING. 275
while at the same time an idea is formed of its length. From the circumstance
that every effort to close the fingers is accompanied by an insuperable resist-
ance you form the idea of solidity, and it is what we have termed the muscular
sense which enables you to do so. The sense of place in each finger-end in-
forms you of the shape and size of the bases of this solid object, through the
intimations which that sense conveys to you that a certain number of circles of
sensation are in contact with the surfaces, and that these circles lie near one
another in a triangular position. If you apply one of the bases to the end of
your tongue, the base will seem larger, because here a greater number of circles
come into contact with the triangular surface, while, if this same surface be
applied to the forearm, you no longer distinguish its form, provided the diame-
ter be not more than 18 lines, because you receive only a single impression, and no
idea of geometrical arrangement can result. It is again the muscular sense
which ascertains the length of the supposed stick, for it is this which gives you
notice of the relative distance of the finger-ends, and the same sense would be
still available for the same purpose, but in a different manner, if the stick were
too long to be held between the fingers. Were it, for instance, an ell long, you
might estimate its length by holding it between a finger of one and of the other
hand, or by moving a finger along its surface from end to end, and it is to
the muscular sense that you would owe the consciousness in the former case
of the relative distance between the fingers, and in the second of the
extent of the movement executed. By similar means you obtain an idea of the
surfaces of the object, as under what angles they meet, whether they be
straight or bent, rough or smooth, &c. No further exemplifications are deemed
necessary ; the one here given will suffice to place in a right point of view the ~
operations of the sense of touch, especially as applicable to the determination
of the relations of place or position, and will serve at the same time strikingly
to illustrate the conformity of arrangement and design in the endowment of .
the finger with so exquisite a degree of the sense in question.
So much, respected reader, for the doctrine of the sense of touch. This were
the place to bestow a closer consideration on the common feeling which we have
contradistinguished as an indirect or imperfect sensation from those of touch, had
we not limited our purpose to a discussion of the true perceptions of the sense.
Add to this, that the distinction between the two classes of sensations has been
already made sufficiently clear, and indeed that one description of the common
feeling, that of muscular effort, has, in the foregoing remarks, been the subject
of examination with a view to a right appreciation of its action and oflices.
I would fain hope that.in the attempt to convey to the general reader an in-
sight into the nature of his most important sense, I may not have fallen too far
short of my purpose. At the close, even more sensibly than at the outset of my
undertaking, do I feel the conviction that it is a more difficult and a more re-
sponsible task to open to the novice the gates of the temple of a physical science
than even to penetrate therein by the laboriotis process of investigation; more
difficult, because we cannot lead the novice by our own path, but only by the
common one which alone he can tread; more responsible, because every adul-
teration or charlatanical exhibition of the treasures of science seems a profana-
tion, calculated to satisfy a childish curiosity, not the intelligent inquiries of a
cultivated mind. There are numbers, doubtless, who think that the scope of
science, and especially of the physical sciences, consists in the alchemy of
money-making, who hold no discoveries worth the trouble of examination, ex-
cept such as can be turned to account in the kitchen or the workshop; who wish,
therefore, to learn nothing from science but what conduces to these “ useful’
objects. It is indeed the duty and a grateful duty of science to place its acqui-
sitions at the service of industry and art; but he errs who ascribes to science
the inferior réle of a handmaid to the latter. He who, with the question, cw
276 ON THE SENSES.
bono? (of what use?) only thirsts after popular expositions, will probably de-
rive not the least satisfaction from the preceding observations. For such alone
are these pages intended who desire the possession of scientific truths for their
own sake; and it is to such only that 1 deem it possible to convey a popular
representation of physiology—a subject which, in the foregoing article, appears
for the first time in this work, (Aws der Natur.)
2—THE SENSE OF SMELL.
MAN is, ina certain sense, the slave of his nose, and even a strong will is
often powerless in its struggle against the force, partly original, partly developed
by habit, of that uns seemly tyrant. Not to be suspected of a trivial allusion to
the snuff-taking members of mankind, and in order to allay in my readers’ every
sentiment of indignation which this imputed slavery might give rise to, I hasten
‘to explain and prove my assertion, stating at the outset that we share this
slavery with the animals, to which we, in general, and even in many a physical
relation, are certainly not so incomparably superior as the proud lord of creation
would fain believe. Who would deny that what we call our disposition is but
a soft wax, moulded in manifold ways by sensual impressions, and, according
.o their nature and power, incessantly changed iato endlessly varying shapes,
eomparable, in this respect to the photographer’ 3 plate, which, yielding to the
-tnfluences and inviolable laws of light and shadow, reproduces in faithful
images the local relations under which light and shadow act upon it? Who,
indeed, would be so presumptuous as seriously to assert himself complete master
of his disposition, and able to force it to withstand the most powerful impres-
sions of the senses, without changing color or form? He who asserts this has
not yet cast a profound discerning look into the machinery of his own mental
life, whether prevented by a lack of talent for self-observation or by a lack of
modesty. He who earnestly examines and tries to understand his inner life
will have found that, in a thousand cases, our longings, our desires, as well as the
opposite antipathies, always wear the color of the momentary disposition; that,
as its effluences, they are, like itself, the indirect products of the workings of
the outer world upon our soul through the medium of our senses; and that from
the same source flow thousands of our actions which we regard as entirely
spontaneous, as springing from our free will, and not from the force of external
influences. These may appear to some as commanplace speculations ; ; they
certainly are truths which the lyric poetry of all ages has hounded to death,
and which, coated with new phrases, are reproduced in every novel; but they
are, no doubt, nevertheless obscure to many a reader who receives them with a
contemptuous smile as stale, and ina given case deceives himself, unable to dis-
cern the source of his disposition, the hidden external causes which, through
the senses, have necessitated his “voluntary” desires and actions. We shall
leave it to the poets to sing the commanding voice with which nature speaks to
our soul through the senses, charming forth, in varied alternation, joy aud sorrow,
longing and horror, and only ina few allusions shall allow ourselves a a slight
encroachment upon their domain. Whose heart is so ice-bound as not to be
warmed by the charms of nature awakening from its slumber on an early and
a serene spring morning? Behold, its youthfully stirring life pours into your
inner being through all your senses, paints every thought with its gaudy tints,
rouses all the merry spirits of your heart, (an innocent instrument, indeed, but
which the poets have transformed into a cornucopia of the feelings.) The fresh
and sapful verdure excites your nerves of sight, the tepid air your nerves of
touch, the fragrance of the young spring flowers your nerves of smell, the
returoing birds your nerves of hearing, inspiring long-missed sensations, and if
: THE SENSE OF SMELL. PAN
you so want it, you can procure a vernal enjoyment even to your nerves of
taste. And what is there in that verdure, in that fragrance, in that soft breeze,
that so works upon your soul? Why is the green carpet unable to breathe into
your. heart a desire for travelling, or the warm stove that secret longing so
often sung by the bards of spring? Physiology has no better answer to these
questions than poetry, but in these and other innumerable facts it sees evidences
of the normal dependence of the actions of the soul upon the qualities of the
physical processes in the excited nerves, and the processes of sensation un-
avoidably conditioned by the former. In other words, the outer world compels
our soul not only to feel, but, indirectly, also to think, to form conceptions, even
to will, and thus leads, as if by a thread, that proud being that fancies to walk
in such unconditional independence of the laws of the physical world. What
a poor thing would the human soul be without the senses; nay, it is not even
imaginable without them! A man born without any senses could scarcely
vegetate; it would be absurd to talk of his liweg psychically. The soul
develops its abilities only in the school of the senses; only the senses convey
to it the materials for thinking, for the formation of conceptions and ideas ;°
only the senses give it the primary objective points for the development and
exercise of its volition; the will, even if an imminent and inborn faculty of the
soul, would, without the senses, be a latent foree. I leave it to the reader
to picture to himself what I have only hinted at, to form an idea of the
spiritual activity of a man cut off from his birth from all sensuous perception.
After an unprejudiced examination everybody will arrive at the same result,
at the conviction that psychical life without senses is to us something entirely
inconceivable, the best proof of which is that at every attempt to imagine the
soul surviving and separate from the body, we are compelled to endow it with
senses and the ability of reacting upon external bodily things, else our attempt
fails from the beginning. ‘The znstinct, however, of forming such an image is
necessary, and deeply rooted in the human soul, educated as the latter is under
earthly circumstances, from which it borrows all its conceptions; no one can
free himself of that instinct.
In short, the soul, in its earthly career, is first the pupil, and subsequently,
through life, the slave of the senses, inseparably connected with them, as the
steam-engine is with the fire, which engenders its motive power and renders
its activity possible. Deprive a grown-up person, who from childhood has been
in full possession of all his senses, of only one of them—the sense of sight,
for instance—and observe how poor his educated soul becomes through this
single loss, how narrowed its circle of ideas, how one-sided the exercise of its
volition; deprive him of several, and see into what pitiable poverty even the
richest soul will sink.
It is true the sense of smell is of all the least necessary, and still it is a tyrant
like the others, and plays its part as such openly or behind the scene. It, too,
moulds our disposition, awakens desires—most material desires, too—and these
are followed by actions which, when speaking of man, we boldly designate as
entirely voluntary, (because they can be prevented by our will,) and when of
animals, we put to the account of that universal wizard called instinct. Here
are afewexamples. You speak of an innate instinct when the hound follows the
track of the game, which his extremely keen sense of smell makes him discover;
you justly deny this action of the dog to be an entirely voluntary one, caused
by reflection. When, your stomach being empty, the delicious odor of a savory
meal engenders in you an appetite—that is to say, literally, a desire for that
meal, and you satisfy this desire; when the drunkard, seduced by the vapors
of spirituous liquors, yields to the tempting odor, in spite of all his good deter-
minations and of energetic exertions of the will to prevent it, and satisfies what
he emphatically calls his thirst, I do not see what difference there is from a
physiological point of view between your and the drunkard’s case aud that of
278 ON THE SENSES.
the hound. Like the latter, both of you obey the incitement produced by the
nerves of smell; in most cases, it is true, you can refrain from satisfying your
desire, but just of this desire you cannot free yourself, whether you be one of
the strong or the frail. When the new-born child grasps at its mother’s breast,
and tries to suck it, as it also does with every finger offered it, you cannot avoid
supposing a human, inborn instinct, and attributing to it that inconceivable
action so beneficial to the child. The grown-up man who grasps at the odor-
ous meal differs from the new-born child only in that he understands his
action; the desire itself and the action resulting from it are as necessary conse-
quences of the working upon the soul of the singularly excited nerves of
smell, as is the child’s grasping at and sucking its mother’s teat. The slavish
dependence of our soul upon the impressions of the sense of smell is very
clearly evinced by the well-known fact that the same food, the flavor of which
seems to you delicious, and invites you to eat when you are hungry, disgusts
you in a state of satiety, so that the strongest will can scarcely induce you to
eat of it. The replenishing of your stomach and the saturation of your blood
with nourishing matter so much changes the disposition of your soul that it
reacts upon the impressions of smell in a quite opposite way to its action in
hours of hunger, and obstinately rejects what it previously desired, commanding
your organs to convey it to the alimentary canal. You say you want to follow
no more the odor of the food when you have eaten enough; but this freedom
of will is not a whit better than that of the fox who did not want the unap-
proachable grapes—than that which makes you grasp after food when hungry.
How slavishly bending and winding does our disposztion follow the lead of the
nose in its various smelling exercises. A habitual smoker is a hypochondriac
when deprived of his cigar; with the smoke he scatters his grief and cares to
the winds; the flavor of coffee opens the sluices of eloquence and all the gates
of the heart to the matron, while the tender fragrance of flowers charms forth
a thousand sweet emotions in the soul of the maiden; the smell of a corpse op-
presses our breast and fills us with horror, just as the odor of balmy incense
inspires us with pious exaltation. A profound recognition of this dependence
of our disposition upon the impressions of smell is involved in the superstition
of the ancients who sought to propitiate their gods, whom they imaged to them-
selves purely human, by the odor of burned sacrifices, which odor, of course, we
would not include among the pleasant ones—a superstition which even now,
though in an altered form, finds its expression in the incense burnings of the
Catholics. How often does it happen that an accidental impression of smell,
such as we remember having felt another time under certain circumstances,
becomes the cause of a long migration of the soul through the events of the
past, deploying before us a long series of pleasant or gloomy pictures, and thus
determining for a time the activity of oursoul. But these physiological sketches
may suflice; in drawing them we had no other object in view than to awaken
in our readers the desire of becoming more closely acquainted with the tyrant
whose mysterious influence so powerfully rules our spirit. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the physiology of the sense of smell still occupies an exceedingly low
pikes considerably below that oceupied by the physiology of the other senses,
so that we can satisfy that desire only ina very imperfect degree. We not only
have no idea of what passes in the nerve of smell while it produces a sensa-
tion of smell in the brain, no idea of the way in which that nerve becomes
affected in the cuticle of the nose, but we have also not the slightest knowledge
of the external irritation which causes that affection, or of the qualities of sub-
stances which render them odorous. While, as regards the senses of sight
and hearing, and also that of touch, as above treated, we possess the exact
physical knowledge of the external agencies which the nerves of the eye, of
the ear, and of the skin react upon, while the laws of the oscillations of the
luminous ether, of the velocity and extent of its waves, of the vibrations of sound,
THE SENSE OF SMELL. 279
&c., have been elucidated with wonderful acuteness, neither physics nor chem-
istry answers the questions, what agent excites the nerve of smell; by what
force musk or the ether of rose-leaves acts in this or that specific way upon the
organ of smell; why the oxygen of the air, a gaseous substance like the strong-
scented musk vapor, is odorless. If, then, in spite of this testzmonium pauper-
tatis, we still endeavor to produce a popular essay on this branch of physiology,
we look for our justification in various reasons. Firstly, we hope to be able to
give our readers something of general interest in the little that has been made
out with positive exactness; secondly, we shall regard it as a merit if we can
enlighten our readers concerning what we do not know, and if we succeed in
dispelling some of the manifold deep-rooted erroneous ideas and conceptions
which still haunt the imaginations of those uninitiated in scientific research.
This negative part of our dissertation may even be the most meritorious part of
the task before us.
Unfortunately, our very beginning must be with a negative truth, to which
we have already alluded in our introduction on the theory of the senses. We
do not know what a sensatign of smell is, just as we ave unable to explain and
describe the nature of a sensation of touch, sight, hearing, or taste. 'Phose
conscious conditions of the soul, which we call sensations, defy all definition,
Let one try to describe the fragrance of a rose, or the scent of musk, or what
we call a spicy odor or a putrid smell, or to tell what distinguishes the scent of
a violet from the smell of putrescent meat. Indeed, this is a problem which
admits of no solution; everybody knows how a violet smells, everybody pre-
serves in memory the often-felt nature of that sensation of smell, embodying it
in imagination, and recognizing it even when the sense of sight does not present
a violet as its apparent cause, but none is able to designate any characteristic
mark of that sensation, distinguishing it from the nature of other similar ones.
The designations which are used are therefore all borrowed from the external
causes; they either directly name the object from which an odorous substance
is evolved, or which is itself odorous in a gaseous form, (smell of roses, smell
of oil of roses,) or they are selected in accordance with qualities and conditions
under which external objects become smellable, (putrid scent, roast smell )
When we enter a scented atmosphere, and, without knowing the object which
makes it so, desire to describe our sensation, we cannot do it without mention-
ing some object which on a previous occasion caused in us a sensation of smell
of the same quality, and therefore we say it smells like violets, like varnish, &c.
Sometimes we recollect only having experienced previously a similar odor, without
our memory having also preserved. its cause, and in such cases we stand there
helpless, completely unable to designate to any one the character of the sensa-
tion of smell produced in us. That we are still less able to compare a sensation
of smell with a sensation of another sense—with a sensation of light or sound, for
instance—hardly needs an elucidation. Not even sensations of smell and taste, or
of smell and touch, which, as we shall soon see, the uninitiated are so prone to
mix up with each other, can in any way be compared with one another, how-
ever paradoxical this may sound. We speak, for instance, of the keen and pungent
smell of spirits of sal ammoniac, and yet the sensation thus designated as keen
and pungent is no sensation of smell at all, but a so-called common sensation—
a sensation of pain produced, not by an affection of the nerves of smell, but by
an irritation which the vapors of that substance cause in the fibres of the nerves
of touch spread through the cuticle of the nose—a sensation which has nothing
in common with the true sensation of smell simultaneously produced by the
same substance. Wemistake it for a sensation of smell, because it simultaneously
arises with one of that sense, and because we find that, like the latter, it comes
from the nostril; not every one knows that the sensation of smell is produced
in the upper parts of the cuticle of the nose, and the sensation of touch in the
lower. Physiology, however, can prove with certainty, by experiments and
280 ON THE SENSES.
observations on sick persons, that all the presumed acute burning, itching, or
pungent sensations of smell are brought about, not by an excitement of the real
and exclusive nerve of smell, but of the same nerves which, when gently touched,
produce a ticklish feeling. ‘There are individuals who do not feel the scent of
either roses or violets, because their nerve of smell has been deprived by sick-
ness of its active faculty, but who, nevertheless, are very well accessible to the
pungent sensation caused by the vapor of sal ammoniac rising into the nostril.
Everybody knows, from personal experience, that when deprived of all smell
by asevere cold—that is, when, in consequence of an inflammation of the cuticle
of the nose, smelling substances have ceased to act upon the extremities of the
nerve of smell, he is still accessible to the acute sensation caused by spirits of
sal ammoniac or mustard, just because this sensation is produced by the vapors
of these substances penetrating the nerves of touch. On the other hand, it also
frequently happens that we mistake a sensation of smell for one of taste, be-
cause the two happen to coincide. Thus we speak of the aromatic taste of a
substance which has an aromatic scent; while we have that substance on our
tongue, deriving from it a real (bitter or sweet, &cg) sensation of taste, vapors
from it also enter our nasal cavity, which by the throat is connected with the
mouth, and there produce the aromatie sensation of smell. As this latter
coincides with a real sensation of taste, as well as with a sensation of touch on
the tongue, which makes us believe the cause of the sensation to be within our
mouth, while there is no distinct indication of the nasal seat of the sensation of
smell, we place this too in the oral cavity, mistaking it for a sensation of taste.
Many a connoisseur of wine may, indeed, be surprised to hear that while tasting
that liquor his nose is as actively engaged as his tongue; that his praise or
Liame is being determined by smell no less than taste all the time he, with
closed eyes and all kinds of grimaces, moves the noble juice of the vine to and
tro on his tongue.
In spite of much earnest research, we know very little of the organs of smell,
and that little cannot easily be made clear t@ the non-scientific inquirer. Before
all, we must refer to the explanations which we have given in our introduction
on the services of nerves of sense in general, and the means which enable them
to perform such services. A sensation of smell takes place when a certain
rerve, called the nerve of smell, which rises in the brain and spreads its extremi-
tigs through the nose, becomes affected by a gaseous smelling substance ; that is
to say, when the précess which we above designated as the ‘nervous current”’
is produced in that nerve, rapidly extending from the seat of affection, the cuticle
of the nose, along the fibres of the nerve, to the brain, where, by means of a
peculiar apparatus, it acts upon the mind. In itself, the nerve of smell is a
nerve like all others; its fibres have the same appearance, the same qualities as
the nerves of touch or sight, or even as a muscle nerve, the current of which in
the muscle produces contraction, and, through it, motion of the limbs. Even
the current which in the nerve of smell rushes to the brain, while conveying a
sensation of smell, is, as we have seen, very probably, essentially like the
current in the fibre of the nerve of sight, by which this produces a sensation
of sight; or like the current in the fibre of the motive nerve, which, spreading
from the brain to the extremity of the fibre, acts upon the muscle and causes a
compulsory contraction. What, then, constitutes this nerve, essentially the
same with all others, a nerve of smell? What explains, notwithstanding this
identity with other nerves, the specifie kind, incomparable with others, of its
faculties ? Similar reasons to those which explain why the same copper wire,
with the same electric current, now moves the hand of a clock and now ignites
powder; that is, the nature of the apparatus at the extremities of the nerve of
smell in the cuticle of the nose and in the brain. In the cuticle of the nose
we must suppose some specific apparatus arranged at the extremities of the
nerve fibres, which effect that a current is produced in the fibres by a smelling
4
THE SENSE OF SMELL. 281
substance; in the brain we must suppose apparatus at the extremities of the
same fibres in which the current causes a specific process, still entirely unknown
to us, out of which the soul forms a sensation of smell. ‘This is the general
answer which we have already previously attempted to establish; a special
answer in regard to the nerve of smell we can as yet give only in the most
imperfect way. In vain do we look with the microscope for apparatus at
both ends of the tender fibres of this nerve, the mechanism of which would be
so visible to us that we could explain by it the action of the nerve of smell, and
its difference from the action of other nerves. With astonishment we discover
at the extremities of the brain the same small, grainy, dark vesicles (nervous
cellules) which we also find on all other nerves of sense. None of the power-
ful means of discernment of physiology gives us yet the slightest clue
to the process which the nervous current produces in these vesicles; by
what that process is distinguished from one taking place in the vesicles of the
nerve of sight; and, still less, an answer to the question how this process can
work upon the soul and force upon it that sensation which we call a sensation
of smell. We do not fare much better when attempting to analyze the external
extremities of the same nerve. Quite a short time ago nothing more could be
stated than that its fibres probably ended in free points on the fundamental
tissue of the cuticle of the nose, which tissue is precisely like that of every
other cuticle. No mention was made of separate apparatus, the necessity of
the existence of which the physiology of the time did not apprehend. Quite
recently, however, a philosopher of great merit took an important step in
advance, by showing the formerly presumed, but not seen, extremities of
the nerve fibres, and by proving the existence of peculiar elements of tissue
at those extremities. We would fain give up the attempt to produce a sketch
of this, as we fear we shall not be able to accomplish a clear picture; but, being
afraid, on the other hand, lest our elaboration be censured for incompleteness,
we risk to be reproached with a want of lucidity. Imagine a nose cut open
through all its length from right to left, or the whole external nose cut off, from
the nostrils to the forehead, so that you can look without hindrance into the
inner cavity, the aspect will be represented by the figure here attached. The
whole nasal cavity is divided into two halves by a perpendicular partition
(marked S) extending from the rear to the front.
You feel the beginning of this partition at the entrance of the nose, which is
divided by it into two entrances, the two nostrils NN. Our figure shows you the
very irregular shape of the nasal cavity, the external walls of each half forming a
multitude of conspicuous projections jutting into the cavity. Three principal
projections are noticed on each side which are designated nasal shells in con-
sequence of their resemblance to a muscle-shell. In general, they form a kind
of bent ledges extending from the front to the rear, projecting into the cavity
with a kind of free list, and partly supplied with secondary ledges. Our figure
represents these shells a@ 4 ¢ in the cut, showmg how they divide each half of
the nasal cavity into layers overlying or freely communicating with each other,
and, above all, how through them and their secondary projections a considerable
increase of the surface of the nostril partition is brought about. The whole
surface, with its prominences and corresponding hollows, is lined with a soft
skin, the so-called cuticle, as shown by the double contours. This cuticle con-
sists of two layers of a soft membrane directly overlying the bony wall, the
base of which is formed by a net of thin fibres and a softish substance filling up
the meshes of the net, and secondly, of an external coating in the direction of
the nasal cavity. A microscope shows us this coating to consist of innumerable
small, oblong, cylindrical vesicles, standing thick and perpendicular, in regular
order, on the described base. Each of these vesicles has a pointed rear ex-
tremity by which it is attached to the base, and a broad front extremity directed
towards the nasal cavity. On this broad basis of each single vesicle stands a
282 ON THE SENSES.
wreath of extremely fine and tender hairs, continually shaken by a kind of
lashing motion. Each little hair, in rapid motion, bends in a certain direction,
assuming the shape of a hook, then raises itself, again bends as before, and so
on. When we look, through the microszope, at a large row of such cellules,
with their numberless little lashing hairs, we have in miniature the same aspect
which a waving cornfield presents. The motion is so rapid that one at first
perceives only a kind of glimmering along the edge formed by the bases of the
vesicles, and only when the movements under the microscope gradually slacken
the single hairs become visible and recognizable. On account ofthis phenom-
enon the said coating, consisting of vesicles, (cellules,) set with oscillating hairs,
is called cilliated epithelium. Physiology has yet no explanation for this
wonderful phenomenon ; we entirely ignore what force, inherent in the vesicles,
or working upon the hairs from without, causes the regular rhythmic oscillations
of the latter, we only know that it is a force which is rapidly extinguished on
the expiration of the organism. It is true, the epithelium separated from the
organism, nay, even the single entirely isolated cellule continues its motion for
a while, but the movement soon expires before we can discover a death change
in the little mechanism. Some of my readers may expect me to designate the
motive force of the hairs as “vital foree,’’ but I beg leave incidentally to remark
that this is a name and a conception long buried in the lumber-chamber of the
past, the resurrection of which would fill every conscientious physiologist with
horror. I defer the justification, of this horror to some other time, observing here
that the forces which keep up the animal organism are no new or special ones,
but the same physical and chemical forces which rule inanimate nature, and
that they act in the organism according to the same inviolable laws which gov-
ern them in the outer world. But enough for digressions. Into this thus de-
scribed cuticle of the nasal cavity, and through it in all directions, spread the
tender and even microscopically hardly distinguishable fibres of the nerve of
smell. According to recent discovery, each of these fibres most probably, ap-
proaching one of the vesicles of the outer coating, fixes itself to its rear ex-
tremity. If this observation be correct, those vibrating cellules have the
significance of end-organs of the nerve of smell, that is, they are to be regarded
as the apparatus upou which the odorous substance acts, producing a physical
or chemical process, which excites the nervous fibres springing from the cellule,
develops a nervous current and sends it tothe brain. This view is exceedingly
well supported. The fact that an odorous substance causes a sensation of smell
on the slightest contact with the cuticle of the nose becomes explicable when we
assume that thesubstance acts first on the cellules bordering on the nasal cavity ; it
remains an enigma if we have to assume that the odoriferous substance has to soak
through these cellules into the tissue of the membrane under it in order to reach
the nerve of smell which it is going to effect. But how an odorous substance,
whatever it be, acts upon the vesicles, and upon their contents; what takes
place in the vesicles; how by this process the nervous fibre becomes affected ;
how the influences of the various odorous substances differ from each other;
all these are problems toward the solution of which no path offers as yet to lead
us, or is likely soon to be discovered. We cannot hope to see the torchlight of
scientific inquiry illumining the mysterious processes which we have just hinted
at before accomplishing two essential tasks: First, the understanding of the
external affection of the nerve of smell, that is, of the qualities which ren-
der a substance odorous, and of the forces by which it indirectly acts upon
the nerves; and, secondly, a clear conception of the conducting process in the
nerve itself of the so-called nervous current. The unavoidable necessity of
making these preliminary scientific steps is as obvious as the sad truth that
physiology is yet helplessly ignorant of how to make them. Of our ignorance
of the nature of the affections of the nerves, we have spoken in our first article ;
the complete obscurity of the exciting agent has been alluded to in this. If we
THE SENSE OF SMELL. 283
take, for instance, a simple smellable substance, like oil of roses, or a simple,
elementary one, as chlorine, we know precisely all its physical and chemical
qualities, but we are unable to state which of these qualities makes it odorous,
why another gas, as, for instance, oxygen or hydrogen, is inodorous, that
is, does not act in the required way upon the nerve of smell, or rather, on the
substance of its end organs. Our scientific ancestors, it is true, knew well how
to get over this difficulty; they invented a fine name for the unknown principle
of odorous substances, and with that they were perfectly satisfied. ‘They as-
sumed a special spzritus rector inherent in odorous substances, without, how-
ever, being able to connect any clear idea with that name. We must here again
decidedly come forth to combat an erroneous conception, though by so doing we
risk being accused of useless repetition, having already in the general introduc-
tion commenced our warfare against the same deep-rooted error. Hvery one
uninitiated in science, when asked about the qualities which render a substance
smellable, will designate the odor itself as the quality inquired after, believing
that a certain odorous essence, from without, has come to our consciousness, as#
a detached part of the essence of that substance which, by way of experience,
we have found out to be the nearest cause of our sensation. Every one will
attribute the quality of the sensation to the external object which is the cause
of the sensation, as properly belonging to that object; this is the fundamental
error we speak of, the same which makes us attribute the blue or green color to
the external light, or to the light-spreading objects, to the “blue sky” or the
“‘oreen meadow,” and the sound to the vibrating cord. We repeat: the quality
of the sensation of smell of which we become conscious has nothing in common
with any quality of a so-called odorous essence, just as little as light developed
by two carbon poles on the passage of a galvanic current has anything in
common with the properties of the two metals which have produced the galvanic
eurrent, and have become the indirect causes of the carbon light, as essence
of violets is the indirect cause of the odor of violets. We need not repeat how
we are brought to attribute the qualities of all our sensations to the external
objects which the soul habitually imagines to be the cause of sensation; we
have seen how this way of rendering our sensations objective is, on the one hand,
the necessary result of the education of our senses in the service of the soul,
and, on the other, the principal condition of the measureless benefits they bestow
on it. It is, therefore, an error, the origin of which is unavoidable, and its ex-
istence indispensable; which science must recognize as error, but which it can-
not prohibit or destroy. The physiologist himself, who teaches you that color
is not the quality of light, regards, like yourselves, the sky as blue, and the
trees as green, and as obstinately as yourselves places the sound in the cord,
and the scent in the violet; he fares like one seized by giddiness, who sees tables
and chairs whirling around him, and though convinced of their standing firmly
at their place is unable to resist the delusion. You all firmly believe in the
theory of the astronomers, that the sun is at rest and the earth in motion, and
yet your eyes again and again give the lie to the great dogma enunciated by
Galileo. From sunrise to sunset they whisper to your soul of the sun what he
told of the earth; “and yet it moves,”’ and your credulous spirit, which piously
follows the demonstrations of its first teachers, the senses, is easily seduced,
and, in spite of its better knowledge, accommodates all its conceptions to the
insinuations of the eyes.
If we cannot explain what makes a substance smellable, what the sensation of
smell is, nor what series of physiological processes intervenes between the action
of an odorous substance on the cuticle of the nose and the rise of the sensation,
at least we are able to elucidate, in a popular way, some of the interesting con-
ditions within which a sensation of smell takes place.
Everybody knows that odors are inhaled by the nose, that is, that a sensa-
tion of smell arises when odorous substances, blended with the atmospheric air,
284 ON THE SENSES.
eater the nasal cavity in consequence of an inhalation. We cannot explain
here the mechanism of breathing; we shall say, incidentally, only that our
chest resembles a pair of bellows; when expanded by force of muscles, it receives
a current of air, which, like that entering through the orifices of the bellows,
serves to fill up the increasing space. Our bellows has two orifices, the oral
and the nasal cavities, we can open and close both at will, so that the air is
made to rush into the expanded chest either by both or one of them. At the
time of regular and quiet breathing the oral cavity is generally closed, so that
the air enters the chest only through the nose, and leaves it when contracted
through the same; in this way light currents of atmospheric air continually pass
by the cuticle of the nose, and each conveys to it whatever of odorous substance
it has absorbed. Daily experience further teaches us that when regular, quiet
breathing through the nose takes place the sensations of smell are comparatively
faint; that their intensity increases considerably when the air is inhaled through
the nose by strong and rapid blasts; that we thus repeatedly execute short but
trong inhalations through the nose by intentional smelling or snufling. Finally,
it is a well-known fact that, even in an atmosphere saturated with most intensely
odorous substances, we do not smell anything when inhaling the air exelu-
sively through the oral cavity; though without closing our nostrils with our
fingers, so that the odorous air enters the nasal cavity through the open orifices,
but is not carried throughout it 7x motion. A closer analysis of these simple
observations leads us to correct conclusions regarding the conditions of smelling.
Virst, it is obvious that, together with atmospheric air, only such substances
reach the cuticle of the nose which can be contained in the former, which are
blended with it in an aerial form, whether they be originally gases, or changed
into such, in the form of steam or vapor, from a solid or liquid state. Solid or
liquid bodies which become gaseous at an ordinary, or only at a high tempera-
ture, are, as is well known, ealled volatile. Neither a liquid nor a solid sub-
stance, even if possessed of the necessary properties, can, under ordinar
circumstances, penetrate the nose and cause there a sensation of smell. The
question then arises whether there are among the non-volatile, solid or liquid,
bodies such as would be able, when brought in contact with the cuticle of the
nose, to affect the nerves of smell, it appearing probable that we only, therefore,
never smell the non-volatile bodies because the ordinary carrier of odorous
substanees, the air, eannot convey them to the nose. ‘The question can be
answered, and is solved by very simple experiments; solid bodies can be blown
into the nasal cavity, as powders, for instance; liquid substances can be brushed,
squirted, and poured into it, as we soon shall see, when it becomes manifest
whether they produce sensations of smell. Experiments of this kind have
established it as a law, which knows no exception, that a// non-volatile bodies
are odorless, being devoid of that unknown property which is the exciting
element for the nerve of smell. Only originally gaseous or volatile substances
are smellable. But that the gaseous or volatile state is not the only condition
which enables a substance to affect the nerve of smell is proved with certainty
by the fact already alluded to, that not all gaseous or volatile suodstances are
smellable, as, for instance, the odorless oxygeu and carbon, and among the latter,
water. There must, therefore, be another condition besides the one already
mentioned, to render a gaseous or volatile substance odorous, and that most
essential condition is the great, unsolved enigma. Another question is, whether
the volatile or gaseous substances, which experience teaches us to be odorous,
can only then act excitingly on the nerves of smell when they touch the cuticle
of the nose in an aerial state, or whether they evince the same faculty also when
dissolved in water. One is inclined to expect with certainty a smelling effect
also in the latter case, as every odorous substance, even when coming in contact
with the cuticle in a gaseous state, is probably imbibed by the vesicles of the
epithelium, from which it acts upon the nerves only after being dissolved
THE SENSE OF SMELL. 285
in the moisture of the cuticle, and as it would seem proper to assume that such
a substance would preserve, in a liquid solution, all its essential qualities. ‘The
question is not so easily solved as would appear at the first glance, and
therefore not yet solved with complete certainty. In a surprising way the
experiments made prove more against than in favor of the smellability of odorous
substances in liquid solution; but as in most cases there is a strong presumption
of the possible existence of other reasons for inodorousness than the state of
solution, no decided judgment ought to be formed. We shall only briefly indi-
eate the way of proceeding, what regards must be had, and what precautions
taken. Were we only to wet the cuticle of the nose with the liquid solution of
an odorous substance, we could by no means conclude from the resulting sensa-
tion of smell that the liquid solution has been effective, as while, besides it,
there is air in the nasal cavity, a part.of the odorous substance combines with
it, thus coming in contact with the cuticle also in an aerial state. The first
condition of such experiments will, therefore, be to exclude from the nasal cavity
all air which could absorb a part of the odorous substance from the solution,
and to fill up with the latter the whole cavity. Such a filling up of the nose
with liquid will probably appear to our readers not only as a very disagreeable
experiment, but also as impracticable. Neither the one vor the other is really
the case, as we can assure from experience; the experiment is very easily made,
and neither painful nor in any other way particularly disagreeable; it by no
means belongs to the list of torturings with which physiologists are so eagerly
reproached. Let one man recline upon a long table and so hang down kis head
off the edge as to have the nostrils turned upward, and another will be able to
completely fill up each of the latter with water abundantly poured into them,
The liquid remains in the nostril as in a tumbler, without flowing down, as we
would expect, into the throat, which is in open communication with the nasal
cavity, of which breathing through the nose alone is a sufficient evidence. The
mechanism which interrupts this communication, and forms a close partition
between the nasal and guttural cavities, is the following: ‘When looking into
the wide-open mouth of a man, pressing down the back of the tongue with our
finger or with a spoon, and thus glancing beyond it, we perceive in the back-
ground of the oral cavity an arched gate, leading into the guttural cavity, so
that, with the help of a favorable illumination, we can sce through the gaté the
hind wall of the throat. Hanging down into this gate like a curtain there is a
soft fold of skin, with a prolongation in its middle, known as the uvula, which,
reaching down almost to the threshold of the gate, divides this into two halves.
This perpendicularly hanging-down fold, which is moved by peculiar muscles,
can be bent down backward so as to stand horizontally, the uvula touching the
wall of the throat. In this position the soft palate forms a valve entirely closing
the throat, so that nothjng’can pass from the latter into the interior openings
of the nasal cavity above it, or vice versa. This separation of the two cavities
through the described mechanism takes place every time on the swallowing of
food or beverage, which are by this means prevented from straying into the
nasal cavity; it is the same valve which, in the experiment in question, prevents
the flowing down to the throat of the water poured into the nostrils. Now, if
we in this way fill the nasal cavity with water, mixed with a small quantity of
eau de Cologne, of which it smells when held before the nose, a sensation of
smell arises at the time of the pouring in of the liquid, and vanishes when
the filling up is complete. This might appear at first glance as an unequivocal
evidence of the odorlessness of the odorous substances when brought in contact
with the cuticle of the nose in liquid solution, and thus also of the necessity of
their being in a gaseous state for the purpose of smelling; but considerable
doubts arise against this conclusion. Microscopie examinations of the cuticle
of the nose have shown that the vesicles with which the latter is internally
lined, and which seem to perform such an important mediating part between the
286 ON THE SENSES.
odorous substance and the nerve of smell, are exceedingly tender and fragile,
being easily burst by water which soaks into them. If those ceilules be
really ihe, end apparatus of the nerves of smell in which a nervous affection
is first produzed bythe odorous substance, we cannot be surprised to find that
after their destruction by water odorous substances are unable to excite the nerve
of smell. It has been proved, indeed, by direct experiments, that pure water
poured into the nasal cavity in the above-mentioned way for some time suspends
the faculty of smell, so that after its removal from the nose even strong-scented
gases are not smellable when inhaled ; and so it is more than probable that this
destructive influence of the water causes the negative result of the experiments
made with liquid solutions of odorous substances.
It would be very desirable to find a liquid which would not affect the
cellules of the cuticle of the nose, and to repeat with it the same experiments.
Moderately thinned sugar, or albumen solutions, or liquefied blood containing
its red globules, would probably be found available in this respect. ‘To my
knowledge, however, no such experiments have been made. But should even
these produce the same negative result—should, for instance, eaw de Cologne,
dissolved in water and poured into the nasal cavity, cause no sensation of smell,
there would still remain one last possible objection to the validity of the con-
clusion that odorous substances are powerless in a state of solution, and that
the gaseous form is the only condition of their smellability. For with the simple
filling of the nasal cavity with a solution of an odorous substance there is still
wanting another condition of the rise of a sensation of smell, to wit, the motion
on the cuticle of the medium saturated with the odorous substance. We have
already alluded to the daily experience which indubitably proves the ineffective-
ness in the nasal cavity of odorous air in a state of rest. If we enter an ill-
smelling atmosphere we best defend ourselves by closing the nose; but we
avoid the sensation of smell also by breathing through the mouth alone. ‘There
can be no doubt that when the nostrils are open the external air which is satu-
rated with odorous substance mingles with the air in the nasal cavity, and that
the odorous substance is thus brought i in contact with the cuticle. The absence
of a sensation of smell can, therefore, have no other cause but the immobility of
the air. As soon as we cause the lightest draught by opening the nasal channel,
sensation immediately arises. very smoker can convince himself in an
agreeable way, and without exposing himself to a bad atmosphere, of the ecor-
rectness of this statement. When holding the smoking cigar as closely near
his nostrils as possible, without burning himself, he will teel warmth and a
certain tickling in the nasal cavity from the entering smoke, but no trace of a
real smell as long as he entirely avoids breathing through the nose; but at the
lightest draught caused by nasal inhalations a more intense sensation of smell
will immediately take place. Ladies can use, instéad pf the smoking cigar, a
little flask of perfume with the same satisfactory result. ‘The question here
arises: In what way does the motion of the scented air cause the rise of a sen-
sation of smell? This question, too, we must unfortunately leave without a
precise answer. The nearest we find is not sufficient. The faculty of receiving
impressions of smell by no means extends all over the wall of the double nasal
cavity, being limited to the upper sections, to the middle and upper nasal shells,
and the upper part of the partition. Through the cuticle of these parts only
the nerve of smell spreads its fibres. The cuticle of the lower nasal shell, of
the bottom of the nasal cavity, aud of the lower part of the partition, is sup-
plied with fibres by another nerve, which has been proved to be a nerve of
touch, and serves as a medium for the sensation of smell of the nasal cavity.
It is the excitement of this other nerve, by a light touch, that causes the
tickling affection which produces sneezing, and the affection of which by sharp
steam, for instance, from burning sulphur or spirit of sal ammoniac, produces those
acute burning or itching sensations of touch which, by the common peoole, are
THE SENSE OF SMELL. 287
mistaken for real sensations of smell. Now, as odorous substances can produce
sensations of smell only when in contact with the upper parts of the fasal
cavity, the motion of the odorous air caused by the nasal inhalation seems to
have no other aim but to make it stream towards the upper smelling regions of
the euticle; and it would not appear irrational to suppose that when the air
is in rest in the nasal cavity there arises no smell from the odorous atmosphere,
beeause the gradual blending of the external with the internal air, in
consequence of so-called diffusion, would not be sufficient to convey an
adequate quantity of the odorous substance to the upper parts of the cuticle.
But besidesits being evident that after a sufficient lapse of time that blending
must in all cases become so complete as to equalize the amount of odorous sub-
stance in the nose with that in the external air, the insufliciency of that expla-
nation can also be proved by a direct experiment. If we blow some odorous
air directly against the upper parts of the nose outside by means of a small
tube introduced into the nasal cavity, there arises no sensation of smell, or at
least a considerably fainter one than when drawing the same air through the
nose by a motion of breathing. ‘This shows that the motion of the odorous air
which is caused by inhalation must have in it something peculiar, and that this
peculiarity is the conditional something for the affection of the nerve of smell.
But in what this peculiarity consists is another enigma for the solution of which
physiology as yet offers but a suggestion itself in need of a further explanation.
The lower nasal shell, which by itself is no medium for sensations of smell,
seems yet to bear a relation to the odorous air entering from without, which is
important for the development of a sensation ofsmell. It has been observed that
the loss of the projection of the nasal partition, caused by disease, for instance,
is generally connected with a considerable lessening or with an entire loss of
the sense of smell, though it must be remarked that in these observations it
may hardly have been ascertained whether the upper nasal shell had not under-
gone simultaneously with the lower such alterations as would directly cause
the loss or a weakening of that sense. The part to be played by the lower
nasal shell can only be a subject of conjecture. ‘To these we are led by an
examination of the position and form of the lower shell. This (as shown also
in the above figure) forms a ledge extending from front to rear in a crooked
oblique direction, and having its concave plane turned towards the bottom of
the nasal cavity, and its convex plane towards the upper shells, its interior list
being strongly bent downward. When propelling the atmospheric air into the
nose by an expansion of the chest, the current of air receives such a direction
from its position and form of the nostrils that it strikes the list of the lower
shell, the nostrils extending downward, so that the nasal entrance presents a
funnel turned upward. Were the nostrils perpendicular, and therefore the
nasal entrance on each side a funnel turned backward, the current of air thus
introduced would receive adirection rearward, streaming by the shortest possible
way, along the bottom of the nasal cavity, towards its rear opening toward
which it would be attracted, and being prevented by the gorge of the lower shell,
as if by an umbrella, from ascending to the smelling region. But as it is, the
stream of air receives an oblique direction upward, and must so strike the op-
posite list of the lower shell as to break on it, and thence to stream partly along
itsunder plane towards the cpening, and partly along its oblique convex upper
plane towards the upper shell. The more effectively we inaale by the nuse,
the more surely and effectively the current of air is led towards the lower shell,
and the greater becomes the part of the current branching off upwards. ‘The
streaming of the air against the lower shell can further be promoted by changing
the form of the nasal entrance ; the operation of snufling, at least, seems to be ex-
plainable in this way. The wings of the nose are by it drawn upward so as to tura
the nasal hole a little rearward, in consequence of which the inhaled current
of air is necessarily turned still more directly upward, and a greater part of it
288 ON THE SENSES.
carried upon the upper side of the shell. The mechanical part performed b
the dower shell in conveying the air to the smelling region being thus established
with tolerable certainty, the conjecture is natural, on the other hand, that its es-
sential service to the sense of smell cannot consist in this simple act of convey-
ing, as we have just seen that an odorous current blown directly against the
upper shells produces only faint sensations. There must be something peculiar
in that conveying operation of the lower shell; some change of the odorous
current must there take place by which its faculty of affecting the nerves of
smell in the upper cuticle is enhanced. In what that consists we do not know;
all the suggestions made rest on. slender foundations, and can expect belief only
from confirmations as yet to come. It may be discovered on some future day
that the current of air impregnated with an odorous substance receives on its
way over the cuticle of the lower shell some admixture by which its power
uf affecting the end-organs of the nerves of smell is increased. As long as we
do not know the effective principle of odorous substances we have little hope
of obtaining full light as to the necessary conditions of their efficiency or of satis-
factorily explaining what has been empirically discovered to be such.
That effective principle must be different in quality in different odorous sub-
stances; it must have as many different modifications as there are distinguished
qualities of sensation; but its intensity is also exceedingly varying in different
odorous substances, as some of these, even when received in large quantities
from the atmospheric air, produce only faint sensations, while others, even when
contained in the breathing air in an infinitely small quantity, in imponderable
particles, still intensely affect the nerve of smell. We shall mention some well-
known instances as evidences of the enormous power which that effective prin-
ciple must have in some bodies; or, as may be differently expressed, of the
extraordinary sensitiveness of our organ of smell in regard to certain substances.
The most wonderful substance in this respect is undoubtedly musk, which,
with incredible tenacity, preserves its efficacy in the very minutest parts. It
is enough slightly to touch a musk-bag with one’s fingers or a garment to have
the smell in the touching part for days; nay, even if we spent only a short
time in a musky atmosphere, our dresses will for a long time fill the rooms we
enter with a musky odor. In order to offer an inexact idea of the minuteness
of the particles of musk which are still capable of imparting some odor, we
state, after a well-known experimenting physiologist, that a certain liquid,
containing as much of an extract of spirit of musk as s5o9d¢oo0qpth part
of its whole weight, was at times still distinctly odorous. A grain’s weight of a
liquid of which s594gooth part was of that extract spread an intensely pene-
trating odor. These figures are naturally but of little value, as the other
moments which are to be taken into account, in ascertaining the intensity of
smell, cannot be precisely measured, and the intensity of the sensation not even
inexactly. However, they facilitate the forming of an idea, and people like to
see endless greatness or minuteness represented in figures, although a million-
fold increase by means of a solar microscope is as little apt to create a clear
conception as the number of miles, learned by heart, can do it in regard to the
distance of stars fromthe earth. Next after musk are to be mentioned certain
flower ethers, especially the oil of roses, a little drop of which is sufficient to fill
with odor animmense atmosphere. ‘lhe same physiologist states that a certain
space filled with air of which, at the highest, only zgo$o00 part was vapor of
oil of roses, still diffused a distinct odor of roses. Figures like these could easily
be presented in numbers, but we prefer restricting ourselves to those given.
The intensity of a sensation of smell depends not only on the quality of the
odorous substance, and on the quantity in which it is carried upon the nasal
cuticle, but also on the sensitiveness of the latter and of its receiving apparatus.
This sensitiveness, it is well known, greatly differs in different persons, and still
more in animals of different species. It varies also, and that considerably, in
THE SENSE OF SMELL 289
fhe same person, according to circumstances. It is positively certain that.the
sense of smell, like all other senses, can be refined by exercise; we gradually
learn more easily to apprehend faint odors—to distinguish between different
ones—to recognise the shades of one and the same odor. The nose of a connois-
seur of wines boasts of being able to find out the land and the year which have
oduced a certain wine; the nose of a chemist is in many cases a reliable agent
bor discovering the presence of smellable chemical combinations. On the other
hand, we often meet with a gradually developed obtuseness of the sense ot
smell, be it in consequence of old age, in which all senses suffer from a decrease
of nourishment, of a habitual stuffing of the smelling channel with snuff, or of @
diseased condition of the nasal cuticle. That every bad cold carries with it a
considerable weakening or temporary loss of our smelling faculty is an experience
which few men will not have gained. Some persons are inaccessible only to
certain odors, their sense of smell being otherwise in a perfectly normal condi-
tion—a partial want, the cause of which is yet unexplained.
We shall say but few words on the aesthetic side of smelling. The opposite
conceptions of fragrance and stench denote the fact that certain qualities of
smell produce an agreeable, and others a disagreeable sensation. But it is hardly
necessary to remark that there is no universally acceptable division of odors,
without reference to the nose, into agreeable and disagreeable ones; that one
person is delighted by an odorous substance which is loathsome to another; nay,
that the same person may under certain circumstances call an odorous substance
fragrant, and detest it under others. Habit, custom, bodily conditions, determine
and modify the aesthetic effects of impressions of smell. Thousands of persons
find the smell of valerian greatly disagreeable, while others rank it, as do the
cats, among the perfumes; some are attracted, others are repulsed, by the smell
of old cheese or of garlic. Even the most disgusting odors meet with particular
favor; there are hysteric ladies to whom the smell of burned hair is incense.
The Laplander rejects such tallow as would not, by its rancid smell, stand the
test of his nose. It is true, we take the liberty of Canis their taste, or even
to class them with the animals on account of this their presumed perverseness;
but we do it, perhaps, with no more right than they would have to reproach us
for placing musk among the perfumes. Very likely, the esbowquet atmosphere
of a European fashionable lady is as distasteful to an Esquimaux as is to us his
fish-oil smell, and neither he nor we have a right to declare his or our judg-
ment exclusively acceptable. De gustibus non est disputandum. As regards
the change of judgment in the same person concerning certain odors, we have
- already spoken of that daily experience that in a state of hunger we are powerfully
- attracted by a-.smell of food which disgusts usin astate of satiety. Finally, we
must also remark that our judgment varies with intensity of an odor; that most
persons find a feeble odor of clove oil pleasant, and a strong odor of the same dis-
agreeable, and so on. The mentioned tacts admit of no physiological conclusion ;
we have not yet made the faintest step towards explaining the question how a
sensation of smell acts upon our imagination, or on what conditions depends the
quality of a feeling produced by smell. It need not be further explained that
to call a sensation of smell in itself agreeable or disagreeable is to speak incor-
rectly. In our introduction we have designated the sense of smell as a tyrant;
it is but just that we should represent also its good qualities in their real light,
and try to satisfy in our readers the desire of knowing the vocation and fune-
tions of that sense. A few hints will sutlice; may the reader sketch out to him-
self the rest. The observation of animals is our best guide for that purpose;
in many of them the sense of smell performs a more important, more obvious
part than in man, who, if it must be, can even do without it. The finding of
their necessary aliment, the discovery of their natural enemies, depends, with
thousands of animals, on the services of the organ of smell, and hence the extra-
ordinary fineness of that sense with them. The fox scents a dead body from a
‘ 19 s
290 ON THE SENSES.
distance of many miles, and finds it by following the smell; the wind conveys
to the game the exhalation of man over a large tract of land; it is the smell
which, in the pairing season, brings together the males and females of a large
number of animals, thus playing an important part also in the preservation of
the species. With man, it is true, the functions of the nose are less conspicuous
and apparently of less vital importance; but though he makes no use of it for
finding out his nourishment or his enemies, still its vocation is not restricted to
causing delight to the soul by sweet odors. Is it necessary to adduce special
examples to show in how many ways we are indebted to our sense of smell for
information regarding the presence or absence of substances or certain proceed-
ings in the outer world, from which all kinds of judgments and actions may
occasionally result? We shall specify only one side of our nasal activity. The
organ of smell is frequently designated as a guard of respiration, as it informs
us about the quality of the air which we inhale, and teaches us to shun certain
noxious irrespirable gases, which are distinguished by a peculiar odor. This
designation ought not to be misunderstood, nor the importance of that office over-
estimated. First, there is a number of irrespirable gases which produce no
sensation of smell, against the inhaling of which, therefore, the nose is incapable
of warning us. Secondly, it must be observed that the quality of a sensation
of smell does not directly indicate the noxious or innoxious character of a certam
gas, or of a certain admixture in the atmosphere, but that in order to find this out
we must have acquired by other means the necessary experience concerning the
effects of gases and vapors characterized by peculiar odors. Were we to form our
judgment according to an idea immediately attaching itself to our sensation, and
thus believe all agreeable impressions of smell to be innocent or useful, and all
disagreeable ones to be injurious, we would fall into quite dangerous deceptions;
for instance, we would be inclined to sip prussic acid without hesitation. Thirdly,
we must still remark that we recognize a number of noxious aerial substances by
the nasal sense of touch, and not by that of smell, and that these sensations of
touch, on account of their highly disagreeable quality, more easily persuade us to’
avoid the inhaling of those gases than would the sensations of smell. Those
pungent sensations of touch which are produced in the nose by the vapors of
sulphur leave us not a single moment in doubt whether we shall inhale those
vapors or not, and they would prevent us from inhaling them even if we
knew them to be conducive to our health. In this limited sense only the organ
of smell deserves the title of guard of respiration.
This much, or rather this little, dear reader, do we know of the sense of
smell. We have candidly unveiled the weak sides of physiology, being con-
vinced, as we have stated, that it must be of great use to the common reader to
learn what we do not know, and that it is a merit to show the erroneous charae-
ter of popularly current physiological notions, even when we are unable to replace
them by exact truths. May our reader share with us the hope that the power
of science, so nobly developed in our age, may once, and perhaps ere long, lift
the veil still unpenetrated, and, according to some desponding minds, eternally
impenetrable, which covers the mysteries of nervous life. Though the soul, the
immaterial principle, must forever remain a xoli me tangere of physiological
research, the machinery by which it works will once lay open before the eye of
physiology with all its innermost recesses and finest particles. We would not
like to quarrel with the most genial of our poets, but it grates on our ear to
hear Faust thus despairingly speak of nature. What it reveals not to thy spirit —
thou canst never extort with levers and screws. A little but essential alteration
of this sentence will make it the device of the physiologist, with which he will
calmly follow the trace of the highest problems. Our device is: Thou must
extort it with levers and screws! The microscope, the chemical balance, and
other manifold and ingenious apparatus which fill the armory of the physiolo-
gist, are our lever, our screw.
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY:
A COURSE OF LECTURES BY PROF, CARLO MATTEUCCI, SENATOR, &c.
TURIN, 1861.
TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY C. A. ALEXANDER,
LEcTURE I.—Introduction.—Definition of electro-physiology.—Distinction between the
electro-physiological effects and the physical and chemical effects of electricity.—Appa-
ratus for experiments in electro-physiology.—Measure of muscular power produced by
electricity. :
Grateful for the welcome which my auditors extend to this course‘of lectures,
I ascribe their kind reception in great part to the common sentiment by which
at present we are allanimated. A professor of the University of Pisa, presenting
himself as a lecturer at Turin, where at the same time he resides as senator,
affords but another and significant token of our national union.
I do not now propose to entertain you with novelties, but I hope to commu-
nicate some portion of the warm interest which I feel in one of the most fertile
and attractive sciences of modern times, the science of the physico-chemical
phenomena of living bodies. It is a science whose discoverers made their first
‘appearance in Italy, where it has since never ceased to be cultivated—a fact
which needs no other proof than the names of Redi, Fontana, Spallanzani, and
Galvani.
What I have said would have received the assent of that great man, one of
the most extraordinary intellects of our century, to whom Lagrange is said to
have once made the remark that there could be no further discovery so great as
that made by Newton of the law of universal attraction, because there was but
one world. There is still another, replied Napoleon—the world of details. 'This
world is peculiarly that of the living organism.
But let us enter upon the subject. What is electro-physiology ?
In former times, soon after the discovery of the electrical machine and Ley-
den jar, such was the wonder excited by the electrical phenomena that to
electricity were attributed the most extraordinary effects on animals and on
vegetables. Naturally this wonder was not diminished after the discovery by
Galvani of the contractions occasioned in the frog by the passage of electricity.
It was then the received belief, though founded on mere imagination, that plants
electrified grow much more rapidly and luxuriantly than those not thus treated;
that the soil might be fertilized by electricity, and that an amalgam of zine sub-
stituted for the brain of an animal could restore its sensibility and intelligence.
These presumptions of false science could not fail, of course, to be dispelled by
those rigorous experiments which have led in later times to the foundation of,
the science of electro-physiology, a part of physics which has established cer-
tain laws on well-demonstrated facts, and has also advanced some hypotheses
which are found to interpret a considerable number of those facts.
Electro-physiology falls readily under two divisions: the action of electricity
on vegetables and animals—an action manifested by appropriate effects relative
to the vital organism—and the development of electricity within the living or-
ganism itself.
292 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
I shall begin by briefly citing some instances of phenomena which have been
referred to the domain of animal electricity, but which do not in reality pertain
to it. Thus it was customary, as may be learned from books not of recent date,
to cite as a proof of animal electricity the phenomenon developed by stroking
with the hand a living cat, or in taking off silk stockings in dry weather. These
are effects of electricity developed by rubbing, and may be equally obtained by
rubbing with the hand a muff made of a cat’s fur. Those also were called cur-
rents of animal electricity which resulted from touching with the two ends of the
galvanometer the tongue and the forehead when wet with perspiration, or from
introducing these ends into the liver and stomach of a living animal. Currents
indeed arise, but they are of the same nature with those which we obtain by
dipping the extremities, one in a solution of potassa, the other in sulphuric or
nitric acid, thus bringing the two liquids into communication. In this experi-
ment a piece of cloth is immersed in the acid, another piece in the alkali, the
two pieces are placed in contact, the circuit closed by the extremities of the gal-
vanometer, and we have a direct current from the alkaline to the acid cloth. Now
the sweat is an acid, as is also the gastric juice of the stomach, the saliva and
bile have an alkaline reaction, and hence there are direct currents in the animal
from the alkaline to the acid liquids. Bellingeri, a distinguished Turinese physi-
ologist, in a memoir on the electricity of animal liquids, thought that he had
discovered electro-physiological phenomena, properly so called. He used to
operate with a voltaic pair of plates, sometimes on the arterial blood, sometimés
on the venous, and again on the urine or saliva. These phenomena, rightly con-
sidered, are, and indeed cannot be other than, electro-chemical, and the differ-
ences, whatever they may be, depend on the chemical composition of those
liquids and their different conductibility. It has been also said that the electric
current being passed into albumen, or white of egg, produced organization. The
fact is that albumen is coagulated around the electrodes, because these and the
liquid grow warm from the passage of the current, and because the acid and
alkali produced by the electrization cause the albumen to coagulate.
I have multiplied these examples, because no doubt should be permitted to
remain, especially in the beginning of this course, respecting the distinction
which it is requisite to make between electro-physiological phenomena really
pertaining to the living organism, and the electrical effects which are produced
in animal or vegetable tissues whether alive or dead, and which are due to known
physical or chemical actions. Of this kind are certain other effects of electricity
on vegetation in which there has been a more persistent disposition to see a re-
lation between electricity and the living organism.
You are, perhaps, not ignorant that there is an aquatic plant, the chara,
whose stalk, observed with the microscope, presents a singular phenomenon.
It is divided into compartments, in each of which are seen regularly moving or
circulating globules or cellules. These movements, the cause of which is un-
known, stop when an electric discharge passes through the stalk, and all circu-
lation finally ceases if the discharge is very strong. We must infer that the
discharge acts either by mechanically destroying the structure of the plant, or
coagulating the liquid which it contains, or by altering the chemical composi-
tion, effeets which all suffice to explain the observed results. ¥
An eminent physicist of Turin, Vassalli-Eandi, made a series of ingenious
experiments to show that seeds exposed frequently in the focus of an electric
‘machine germinate before others not thus electrified. I know not whether there
has been any verification of this fact, but it might be accounted for by attrib-
uting the effect to the oxygen, or rather to the ozone, which is known to favor
germination; and ozone is formed in contact with the electrical focus. I have
here the usual ozonemetrie paper covered with iodine of potassa and baked
starch, and it will be seen that, under the electric discharge, the paper becomes
blue, an effect which is due to the ozone,
ELECTRO -PHYSIOLOGY. 293
Your attention is finally called to what has taken place from causing an elec-
trical current to pass for several days into a large piece of flannel moistened
with a slightly salt solution, and on which were s¢attered seeds of the mustard,
millet, and vetch. You observe that, in contact with the negative electrode, the
seeds have already germinated and have even the small leaves, but this is not
the case with those in contact with the positive electrode. Neither is this phe-
nomenon an electro-physiological one, properly speaking, but a secondary effect
of electricity. At the negative electrode is developed the alkali, and at the
positive the acid, as is shown by the reactive paper. Now, in the slightly al-
kaline solution seeds germinate more readily than in pure water, and in the acid
solution they do not germinate at all. In germination the diastasis should act
upon the fecula in order to render it soluble, and convert it into dextrine and
elucose, and this does not take place in presence of the acid, or, rather, takes
place better in presence of a slightly alkaline solution. This is also shown by
experiments in which, independently of a current, I have placed the same seeds,
some in contact with slightly alkaline solutions, and some in contact with acid
solutions. The seeds have germinated in the first case and not in the second.
Let us come now to true electro-physiological phenomena ; that is, to the con-
tractions which are excited in an animal, either living or recently dead, by the
passage of electricity. It is thus that we designate the electric shock ; the pain
and involuntary muscular contraction which occur when we touch the two ar-
matures of a charged Leyden jar, or the poles of a battery formed of several
pairs, or the extremities of a spiral of an apparatus of induction. Before pro-
ceeding it is, perhaps, not superfluous to observe, that the property which the
muscles possess of contracting is inherent in their nature, and that this property
is chiefly manifested through the excitation of the nervous fibres distributed in
the muscle. There is no muscle entirely destitute of nerves, by which may be
demonstrated the truth first announced by Haller, that the muscles possess con-
tractility. This truth is conformable to all physiological analogies, and the
experiments are various by which it is established.
I have here two prepared frogs: one of them was poisoned with curare, the
other killed while the first was dying. If I touch the nerves of the poisoned
frog with the poles of a battery no muscular contraction is excited, but on
operating with the current on the muscles contraction is manifested. In the
other frog contraction takes place in both modes. The muscle then will con-
tract under direct irritation when the nerves have lost their excitability. Lately
a young French physiologist, M. Faivre, has shown that several hours after
death, and when the nerves have lost all excitability, the muscular irritability
is augmented. We have here, then, two distinct things: the irritability of the
muscles, and the capacity of the nerves to awaken that irritability. a
I will remind you, further, that from one of the finest experiments of physiol-
ogy, for which we are indebted to Charles Bell, we know that roots of nerves
issue from the spinal medulla, which, before uniting to form the so-called mixed
nerves distributed in the muscles and in all parts of the body, have distinct
properties. If the anterior rootssbe irritated, very strong muscular contractions
occur, and nothing else; if the posterior roots, the animal utters cries and gives
signs of pain, but there is no contraction. By irritating the mixed nerves ina
living animal we obtain at the same time contractions and signs of pain.
Let us begin by preparing a frog in such a manner as may serve to exhibit
contraction with the electric current. For that purpose it is divided in half
below the upper members, the skin taken off, the viscera are removed from the
lower section, and by introducing the scissors under the spinal or lumbar nerves
a part of the pelvis is separated, by which means the animal is reduced to a por-
tion of the spine, the lumbar plexus, and the two hinder legs. This is called
the frog prepared after the manner of Galvani. I take a small pair of plates
of Volta, formed with a wire of zinc and one of copper or platina twisted or
294 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
soldered together at one extremity, and I touch the frog with the other and free
extremities of the pair. If I touch the nerves the whole frog is strongly con-
tracted, and is equally so when I touch a nerve and muscle; while, on the other
hand, if the surface of the muscle alone be touched with the two extremities there
is only a slight contraction in the portion of muscle interposed between them.
The greater effect in the first case evidently results from the fact that the cur-
rent, and consequently the excitation, is conveyed by the nerves into the whole
muscular mass in which those nerves terminate. We thus arrive at a compre-
hension of the special effects of the so-called electric shock. ;
Tt is well known that the pain is only felt at the articulations, or at least that
it is strongest at those points, and that when the quantity of electricity is in-
creased, the pain is not felt alone at the joints of the fingers, but reaches to the
articulation of the hand andarm. 'The shock increases if the hand with which
the jar or battery is touched be wet, and diminishes if it be dry; in the former
ease the skin conducts electricity much better then when it is deprived of mois-
ture. When a chain of persons is formed by contact of hands, those stationed
at the extremity experience the greater shock. These various effects are readily
understood through the principles of the propagation of electricity. It should
be also remarked that the electric conductibility of the muscular substance is
not less than five or six times greater than that of the nervous matter; and this
is intelligible because the muscle is full of blood, and consequently of serum and
saline solutions, while much solid matter enters into the constitution of the nerve.
When electricity is discharged through the hands and arms the section of the
conductor is narrowed at the joints where the muscular mass is smaller, and the
electrical density in the nervous fibres at those points is much greater than in the
same fibres imbedded ina large muscularmass: hence the shock and greater pain
in the articulations. Franklin exhibited to his auditors an experiment which is
explained in the same way. He caused the discharge of a strong battery to pass
through a living rat when wet, and the animal was not injured; but when the
rat was dry the same discharge killed it. ‘There have been cases in which preg-
nant women have been killed by lightning without injury to the foetus. Under
both these circumstances the stratum of water served to conduct the electricity
and protected the foetus and the rat.
These general remarks being premised, and before proceeding to an exposition
of the fundamental propositions of electro-physiology, it is proper that I should
say a word of the apparatus of measurement applied to these phenomena.
Till recently those who studied electro-physiology contented themselves with
saying that the shock produced by the discharge of the jar, or by the current,
was more or less strong; that the frog was convulsed in a greater or less degree.
We have now an apparatus of measurement which we call a dynamometer. Let
us take a muscle, the gastrocnemius for instance of a frog, and fasten it by one
extremity to a hook or pin; at the other extremity let us suspend with a hook
a small weight ef a gram or half a gram. When a current is passed into
this muscle there is a momentary contraction of the latter, and the weight is pro-
portionally raised. 'This is the force of the muscular contraction, which is com-
puted as is that of steam or falling water, from ihe product of the weight by the
space or height to which the weight was raised. It is necessary, therefore, in
the first place, to measure this height. If we would render the elevation more
conspicuous, resort may be had to an expedient which was once practiced in
physical investigation, the movement may be made more extensive by means of
wheels oralever. But this procedure is now generally discarded, the direct meas-
urement by which the movement is not altered being preferred, and this is ob-
tained by the employment of small telesccpes provided with micrometers. To
render the movement of contraction visible ata distance I use a very light lever
with very unequalarms. ‘The end of the long arm moves over a graduated quad-
rant, and to the end of the short arm is fastened the leg of the prepared frog; the
+
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 295
spine of the frog is fastened above to another hook or to a pin. When the cur-
rent is passed into the lumbar nerves, the muscles contract, the short arm of the
lever is raised, the long one moves in the opposite direction over a line 20, 50,
or 100 times longer than that described by the short arm; that is, in the ratio
of their lengths.
This movement is of course very rapid, and with the naked eye it would be
impossible to fix precisely the point at which the index arrives in the act of
contraction. For this reason Brequet, in a dynamometer which he constructed
for me some years since, placed before the index, and in contact with it, a light
ivory index, which the former pushed before it when the contraction occurred,
and which, when that had ceased, remained at the point to which it had been
carried. I repeat that, for precise measurement, it is necessary to read directly
the elevation or contraction of the muscle. We should, therefore, operate on a
single muscle, and not on a collection of muscles, such as are those which form
the members of a frog, because, as anatomists know, there are in the same.
member some muscles which tend to raise the members, others to restore it to
its position, and whose effects partially neutralize each other. Nor to obtain an
exact measure does it suffice merely to use a single muscle, buf this must be
formed of fibres all equally long and parallel among themselves, and such a
muscle, I think, is found under the tongue of the frog. For direct measure-
ment there must be fixed beneath the muscle a fine metallic cylinder, on which
the divisions are accurately marked, and this we observe with the telescope
furnished with a micrometer; by which means we arrive at a rigorous deter-
mination of the elevation produced by the contraction. I should add that, to
succeed fully in the experiment, it is requisite that the muscle should be kept
tense, because it is raised vertically, but at the same time the strain should not
exceed a certain limit, lest it be too much stretched and its structure altered.
And to conclude what relates to the measurement of the contraction, I would
state that we may determine also the times corresponding to the various phases
of this movement. In effect, when the electric current passes through the nerve
there is a certain time needed for the nerve to become excited, then for the
excitation to traverse the nerve and reach the muscle; the muscle next con-
tracts, and in a very brief space of time the contraction ceases and the muscle
is again relaxed.
There is an ingenious method devised by Watt for measuring the velocity
with which the pistons of the steam-engine move, and it is this method which
I have used for ascertaining the duration of the muscular contraction, Let us
suppose a small brush attached horizontally, after having been dipped in ink,
to the muscle which is to be operated upon. It is obvious that if the point of
this brush touch lightly a ecard of blank paper it will describe, when the muscle
contracts and rises, a straight line on the card. But if the card be a disk
which has an uniform movement of rotation, we at once perceive that the line
will be no longer straight, but curved; and that, knowing the velocity with
which the disk turns, we can, from the curve which is traced, deduce the time
occupied by the contraction and elevation of the muscle. In a word, the
length taken on the axis, called by geometers the abscissa, from the point at
which the pencil begins its course to the point which corresponds normally to
the vertex of the curve, determines the time which the disk occupies in de-
scribing this interval, and this time is that which corresponds to the curation of
the contraction.
From many experiments it results that, in the first moments, when the vi-
tality of the muscle is still considerable, the duration of the contraction is ;45 of
a second; the entire contraction, that is, the contraction and relaxation of the
muscle, occupies 4 or 4 of a second; which implies that the period of relaxation
of the muscle is much longer than that of the contraction, strictly so called.
?
296 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
But if we employ a very strong discharge, the muscle remains contracted and
shortened for several minutes, and sometimes permanently.
I shall here only add that, operating on a prepared frog in the manner which
I have described, and using, for the purpose of closing the circuit, a wheel with
teeth, part of metal and part of wood, we are able, by causing the wheel to re-
volve, to produce in extremely rapid alternation the passage of the current and
its interruption in the frog. 'This will then be seen to contract many times in
succession: if the wheel turns rapidly, that is, if the passages and interruptions
of the current are numerous and at short intervals, the frog remains contracted
and rigid; if the wheel turns slowly, the contractions are distinct, but diminish
in intensity and presently cease. If we would renew the contractions, it is
necessary to leave the muscle in repose for some seconds.
After having thus shown the best means for experimenting on the physio-
logical effects of the electric current, we should proceed to state the laws of
those phenomena, which will be done in the following lecture.
LECTURE II.—General facts of electro-physiology.—The physiological effects of electricity
depend on the variations of the electrical state —Quantity of zinc or of electricity extremely
small in order to produce excitation of the nerve.—Principle of the preservation of living
forces. —Mechanical theory of heat.—Application to electro-physiology.—Electricity excites
the nerve, and the excited nerve occasions the chemical action of the muscular respiration.—
Electricity acts as the spark which kindles a mass of powder.
In the first lecture I endeavored to define with exactness the phenomena
which pertain to electro-physiology, and to distinguish them from others attri-
buted to the electricity of vegetables and animals solely through the imper-
fection of our knowledge. With this view different examples were adduced in
which electricity produces in the living organism effects dependent either on
electro-chemical action or on known physical properties, and hence, independent
of the condition of life and of orgapiaation properly so called. We have seen
that the principal effect of electricity on animals consists in the shock—that is,
in the pain and muscular contraction, which the discharge or electric current ex-
cites in traversing the muscles or nerves of an animal either alive or recently
killed. And in order to observe more precisely this electro-physiological effect,
I have proposed dynamometers suitable for measuring the muscular action, and
described the manner of operating with them. We will now proceed to consider
the laws of electro-physiological phenomena, commencing with an attempt to
investigate their nature.
Whenever a Leyden jar is discharged by a metallic are or any liquid con-
ductor, and when with one of these arcs the cireuit of a battery is closed, the
different physical or chemical phenomena which are produced depend on the
time and on the quantity of electricity which circulates, and which is the cause
of those phenomena. Thus, if the current passes through the solution of sul-
phurie acid of a galvanometer and is constant, the quantity of water which is
decomposed, and the quantity of zine which is oxidized in the battery, are
proportional -to the time—that is, to the quantity of electricity which passes.
And if the circuit instead of being constantly closed be alternately closed and
opened by means of one of the common wheels of interruption having metallic
teeth of the same length with that of the isolating intervals, it will be found that
in the cireuit constantly closed and in that interrupted the quantity of water
decomposed in the same time will be in the ratio of 1 : 4. The calefaction of.
the conductors traversed by the current or discharge depends also on the quan-
tity of electricity in a unit of time—that is, on the intensity of the current; and
the same may be said of the action which the voltaic conductor exerts on the
magnetic needle and of the property of magnetizing soft iron.
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 297
It is not so with the electro-physiological action. If the circuit of a battery
be closed with wet hands, or if the current be made to pass into a prepared frog,
whether in the muscles or nerves alone, or in both muscles and nerves of the
frog or of any animal living or lately dead, it will always be found that the con-
traction and the pain are produced at the first moment when the electricity begins
to pass, and that none is any longer felt or observed while the circuit remains
dosed. It is not, then, the quantity of electricity, not, as we might say, the
passage of the current in the nerves and muscles, which occasions those effects.
If, instead of keeping the circuit in which the frog is included closed, the pas-
sage of electricity is after a certain time interrupted, the signs of pain and the
contraction are then manifested anew. And if, to effect these closures and open-
ings of the circuit, a wheel of interruption be employed, the frog will be seen to
contract and its muscles to be relaxed in succession at each passage and each
interruption of the current. If these alternations be very rapid the frog is seized
with tetanic contractions, which shortly destroy the nervous power-and kill the
animal. In this way it is possible with certain kinds of apparatus of induction
to give even with a very weak current a series of repeated shocks which shall
kill large and strong animals. This effect, therefore, is not owing to the quantity
of electricity, but rather to the variation of the electric condition which arises in
the nerves and muscles of a living animal at the moment of opening and closing
a voltaic circuit. This variable state of the electric tension of a voltaic con-
ductor which was heretofore admitted by physicists as a consequence of the
well known theory of Ohm respecting the battery, is now placed beyond doubt
by experiments made on the long wires of telegraphs. When the circuit of a
battery is closed by touching its poles with a conducting are, we know that the
electric state, and hence the flow of electricity, does not attain at all points and
at the same instant that permanent degree at which it arrives after a certain
time, though a very minute one, but which has yet been measured by operating
upon long telegraphic circuits. We now know that in a circuit of iron wire 500
or 600 kilometres in length, between the moment in which the circuit is closed,
and that in which the intensity of the electric current is perceptibly constant at
all points, there is an interval of time which has been found to be 15 to 18
thousandths of a second. This is the duration of the so-called variable state,
which, according to the nature of the cireuits and the apparatus which give the
electric discharge, continues for a greater or less time. The electro-physiolo-
gical action seems to depend on the velocity with which the permanent electric
state is established in the nerves and muscles of the living animal: the less the
duration of this variable state, so much the greater is the electro-physiological
effect. We know that in the discharges of the Leyden jar or in the sparks of
the electric machine, the quantity of electricity is extremely small. By com-
paring the heat developed in a wire of platina by a discharge of the Leyden jar,
which lasts for a very minute space of time, less perhaps than 5;}55, with the
heat obtained by a small battery which with the same wire lasts for several
minutes, the conclusion has beex arrived at, if not with absolute rigor, certainly
with great probability, that the quantity of electricity developed by the battery,
in proportion to the very small quantity of zinc oxidized, is many times greater
than that which constitutes the lightning of a heavy storm.
It is in our power at present, if not to measure the smallest duration of the
electric spark, at least to determine the limit—that is, a quantity still less than
that which represents the actual duration of the spark. Nor must I omit to
make mention of that highly ingenious application of the measurement of very
small intervals of time for the correction of certain indications which, through
the persistence of the images on the retina, assume for us a false appearance.
When a body revolves with a certain velocity, instead of seeing it at the suo-
cessive points which it occupies, we see it in the form of a continuous ring,
because our eye still retains the impression of the body in a certain position for
298 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
a short time, about the tenth of a second, after the body has left that position;
hence it is clear that, if the rotation is accomplished in less than ;4 of a second,
our perception will be that of a ring or circle, because the body will return to
the point from which it started before the first impression on the eye will have
ceased. But this appearance is no longer realized if the body and our eye are
illuminated by a light which lasts for an interval of time much shorter than
that of the rotation of the body. This is precisely the case with the electric
spark, whose duration has been measured upon principles already indicated,
and has been found to be less than 5;}55 of asecond. A cord which seems
enlarged when it vibrates, the insect which seems of greater size when its wings
move rapidly, the liquid vein which appears continuous, are all illusions which
cease when these bodies are illuminated with the electric spark.
The spark which endures for so short a time, and which is due to a very small
quantity of electricity, at least in comparison with that produced in a battery,
gives very strong shocks, or, in other words, violent pains and contractions. I
take a prepared frog, and submitting it to the action of a small Leyden jar, I
discharge the latter two, three, or four times in succession with a metallic are,
until not only do I no longer obtain sparks, but on testing the jar with a delicate
electroscope I perceive no sign of electricity; still, as you see, the frog repeat-
edly contracts when I discharge the jar through it. It is not, then, I repeat, on
the absolute quantity of electricity that the electro-physiological effect depends,
but rather on the duration of the variable electric state of the circuit in which
the nerves of the frog are included. This duration is, with an equal quantity
of electricity, smaller in the case of the discharge of the jar than with the voltaic
current. It is thus that the intense physiological effects of the discharge of the
jar or of the inducted currents are to be explained.
These considerations have led some physicists to suppose a certain analogy
between the electro-physiological effects and the action of the current in develop-
ing inductive currents when it begins and ceases to act. To represent to our-
selves mechanically, and yet perhaps not inaccurately, how the excitation of a
nerve arises under electricity, we may suppose that there then occurs in that
nerve what occurs in a mass of soft iron or even in certain transparent bodies
under the action of a strong electric current: there is a new molecular equi-
librium which in the one case accompanies the new magnetic state, and which
in the other gives to the body the property of causing the rotation of the polar-
ized ray. The excitation of the nerve—that is, the faculty of causing the muscle
to contract, would consist in, or at least be accompanied by a new molecular
state, and the excitation of the nerve and the physiological effect would depend
on the passage from one molecular state of the nerve to another excited by elee-
tricity and by the greater or less rapidity with which it is accomplished.
I deem it important to dwell upon thesegconsiderations, and shall employ for
exciting the muscular contractions, not the discharge of the jar, of which it is
impossible to know the quantity of electricity, but the electric current of a
battery, made to pass for a very short time into the nerves of a prepared frog.
In this experiment we can know the duration of the current, and hence the
quantity of zine which is oxidized in the battery in that time, as well as the
quantity of muscular labor which the electric excitation of the nerve produces.
This investigation will conduct us to important consequences regarding the
nature of the electric excitation of the nerves. The experiment is quickly
arranged: I take a battery formed of very small elements of platina and zine
amalgamated, because oxidation does not take place except when the circuit is
closed. In the cireuit of this battery I place a galvanometer and a prepared
frog attached to the dynamometer.
This circuit is interrupted ata point where the two extremities formed by two
springs of steel or brass are established very near, but not so as to touch one
another. If we take a strip of brass and with it touch the two springs at the
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ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 299
same time, the frog will at that moment be observed to contract and the needle
of the galvanometer to deviate; in order that this metallic contact between the
two springs may continue for a very short, yet still measureable, space of time,
or, in other words, that the current may occupy a very minute but ascertained
interval, it will suffice to have a large wooden wheel, and to fix the strip of brass
on the rim of this wheel. Let us suppose the wheel to be three metres in
diameter, to revolve in a third of a second, and the strip of brass to be one milli-
metre in extent. It is evident, the wheel having this velocity, that when
the two springs which are in contact with its rim, touch the plate of brass, there
will bea closure of the circuit, and the current will pass for an interval of
time, which, under these conditions, would be 5,455 of a second. You will first
observe that while the frog contracts as if the circuit had remained closed for
some time, the needle of the galvanometer does not deviate, which evinces that
the frog is an instrument more sensitive to electric discharges and to sudden
and extremely evanescent variations of electricity than the needle of the galva-
nometer, which has a degree of inertia, and requires that the action of the current
should endure for a certain time in order to move it. In the next place, if the
passage of the current be repeated until a sensible quantity of zinc becomes
oxidized in the battery, or the circuit be kept closed for a given time, we may
succeed in measuring with exactness what is the quantity of zine oxidized dur-
ing that short closure of the circuit, that is, what quantity of electricity by pass-
ing in that minute interval produces a certain contraction, which may be caleu-
lated, as I said in the first lecture, from the product of the weight raised by the
muscle and the height to which it is raised.
We have thus deduced from experiment, and with much exactness, two quan-
tities between which a close connexion must exist—the connexion, in general
terms, of cause and effect. These two numbers are the amount of zine oxidized
in the battery or the quantity of electricity produced, and the mechanical labor
represented by the muscular contraction excited by that electricity. In order to
explain more clearly the connexion here spoken of, I must bring to your notice
very briefly one of the finest inductions of modern physics, the mechanical theory
of heat.
Even a slightly attentive observation of physical facts, which are constantly
reproduced before us, suffices to vindicate a principle which rational mechanics
had demonstrated @ priort: the principle of living forces. In a word, neither
matter nor force is created in nature, and consequently neither matter nor force
is destroyed. “In every machine which is in motion there is always a motive
force and a resistance to be overcome, and, if we would not admit the absurdity
of perpetual motion, we must necessarily conclude that the motive labor, so to
speak, and the labor of resistance must be equal in the same interval of time.
When, by means of a lever with unequal arms, we see a small weight attached
to the extremity of the long arm produce an equilibrium with a much greater
weight at the extremity of the shorter arm, we might for a moment deem it an
illusion; but no sooner is the lever put in motion than we see the principle
verified of which we have spoken, namely, that the product of the arm of the
lever by the weight will be equal on one side and on the other, which implies
that the greater weight will traverse a space proportionably less than that
traversed by the smaller weight, exactly in the ratio of the weights.
Although these truths were demonstrated in rational mechanics, they seemed
to meet with some contradiction in physics and in experimental mechanics. In
the collision of bodies, as when a body falls from a certain height to the earth
or moves in the midst of water, in all cases of pressure, of resistance, of attrition,
we were content to say that the forces were dissipated in vibratory movements,
diffused themselves gradually into the great masses, were in effect annihilated.
On the contrary, all these cases are only examples of transformation of forces—
that is to say, of the living force which is transformed into caloric, or vice versa,
Wer
300 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
of calorie transformed into living force. From numerous accordant experiments
a quantity has been found which is called the equivalent of heat. his quan-
tity, which is about 420 kilograms, signifies that when a body of that weight
falls from one metre of height to the ground, this movement, or rather this quan-
tity of labor, is not extinguished, but is converted into a quantity of heat capable
of raising the heat of a kilogram of water by one degree centigrade, and that,
vice versa, this quantity of heat may be transformed into the mechanical labor
expressed by 420 kilograms.
I must not omit to mention the experiment which incontestably demonstrates
the transformation of the living force into heat, an experiment which we owe to
the genius of Davy. During a very cold season, when the temperature of the
air was several degrees below 0°, he conceived the idea of causing two disks of
ice to rotate in contact with one another. Of course a greater force was neces-
sary to produce this rotation when the disks were in contact, and then both were
found to be in part melted and converted into water. The heat thus developed
could be nothing else than the living force consumed in the action of attrition.
Another striking example of this transformation is constantly going on in nature;
the water which falls from the clouds and which descends from the mountains
to the main, producing so great an amount of labor, is nothing but the solar heat
transformed.
This principle once admitted, it becomes necessary to extend it to the battery
and to electro-magnetic motors, and finally, also, to the animal mechanism. The
chemical action which takes place in the interior of the battery is a combustion,
and whether it arises without development of a current, or when there is a cur-
rent, the quantity of heat developed will be always constant, and only the seat
of it will be changed, because the current transports that heat into various parts
of the circuit. If we have an electro-magnetic motor, or a machine which pro-
duces a certain quantity of labor, and in which a certain quantity of zine is
burned, it will be found that when the machine is not at work there is developed
in the circuit and in the battery more heat than when it is in action, and that
the difference is just equivalent to the labor produced according to the quantity
which we have given.
This digression was necessary to the conclusion which I would draw from our
electro-physiological experiments, and it is time to return to that which we were
making with the frog. |
I have said that it is possible to determine the quantity, however minute, of
the zine which is oxidized in that evanescent moment in which the circuit with
the two springs remained closed. By making this experiment with care we can
ascertain the mechanical labor produced by the contraction of the frog—that is,
the product of the weight raised and the height. We can make the application
of the mechanical theory of heat to this case, by inquiring whether the zine con-
sumed in that instant of time develops a quantity of heat, and hence a quantity
of mechanical labor equivalent or equal to that produced by the muscle. In this
calculation it is assumed that the current which excites the nerve is transformed
entirely into muscular contraction, and yet in reality it is not so, because the
whole voltaic circuit is heated, and in the act of contraction the muscle also is
heated. Upon that calculation, however, it would result that the mechanical
labor of the contraction is, according to the theory, the same given, or rather a
little less than the equivalent of the heat developed by the zinc oxidized in the
battery. On the contrary, through the numbers deduced from rigorous experi-
ments an opposite result is arrived at; the labor produced by the muscular con-
traction is at least twenty-five or thirty thousand times greater than that which
would correspond, according to the mechanical theory of heat, to the quantity of
zine or to the current by which the nerve was excited.
This result necessarily involved a conclusion which experiment has plainly
confirmed, and which serves greatly to enlighten our ideas on the properties of
*
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 301
the nerves. To explain that result it was necessary to suppose that the electric
_ current which excites a nerve acts as does the spark of fire which kindles a great
mass of powder, or as a small force which causes a heavy mass in an unstable
state of equilibrium to fall from a great altitude. It must be supposed, in effect,
that when the nerve is excited by the electric current, the excited nerve instan-
taneously occasions in the muscle certain chemical actions which, by a concat-
enation as yet unknown, are transformed either into heat, or more prokably into
electricity, and eventually into mechanical labor; in a word, the chemical actions
requisite to explain the muscular labor are within the muscle; it is in the muscle
that they are produced and exhausted after having been aroused by the excita-
tion of the nerve. It was known that a muscle exposed to the air absorbed
oxygen and exhaled carbonic acid; it was known also that exercise of the body
enhanced the chemical phenomena of the pulmonary respiration.
I shall be able to prove to you by a simple and conclusive experiment that
muscular contraction is accompanied by an augmentation in the chemical action
of the so-called respiration of the muscle—that is, by a greater absorption of
oxygen, by a greater exhalation of carbonic acid. Here are two glass bottles
of the same capacity, namely, about 100 cubie centimetres each. ‘The openings
are closed by a cork stopper, through which pass two wires of iron or copper
which are bent horizontally in the interior of the bottle so as to leave between
them an interval of twenty to twenty-five millimetres. I hastily prepare ten
frogs a /a Galvani, and suspend five in each bottle to the wires, by inserting
the two extremities of the wires, one in the portion of spine, and the other in
the inferior part of the pelvis. Everything should be arranged alike in the two
bottles, and the difference will consist alone in connecting the two wires of one
bottle with the extremity of an electrical apparatus, by which, for four or five
minutes, | excite the greatest possible number of contractions in the five frogs
of this bottle, while the five of the other remain at rest. After that time I
promptly remove the cork stoppers and the frogs, and again close the bottles
with stoppers of glass. In order to discover and measure the difference in the
composition of the air which has been produced in the bottles, I ought to make,
as has in fact been done, a strict eudiometric analysis; but this is not possible
during the delivery of a lecture, and I must, therefore, content myself with
showing in a rough but quite evident manner, that in the vessel in which the
contractions took place there is much more carbonic acid ghan in that in which
the muscles were left in repose. For that purpose I promptly pour the same
quantity, ten cubic centimetres of lime water, into the two vessels and shake
them. In the vessel where the contraction occurred great discoloration is pro-
duced, and consequently there is here a much greater quantity of carbonate of
lime than in the other vessel in which the lime water is scarcely whitened.
It must not be supposed that all the carbonic acid developed by the muscular
respiration is exhaled externally. If muscles be placed, after long and repeated
contraction, in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas or in a vacuum, it will be found,
as some years ago I proved by actual experiment, that those muscles exhale a
great quantity of carbonic acid. Bernard, in analyzing the gases of the blood
which traverses a muscle after a long contraction, found no longer any trace of
oxygen, but nearly all the gas was carbonic acid. It may be said, therefore, that
the immediate cause of the exhaustion of a muscle is an asphyxy, owing to the
disappearance of the oxygen as well as of the air of the blood, and to the presence
of the carbonic acid which is substituted for them. Perhaps the day is not
distant when chemistry will inform us what are the immediate products of the
greater combustion which occurs in a muscle through contraction; it is not by
the carbon alone that the oxygen is fixed; the carbonic acid is a last term, and
there are, perhaps, also some fixed acids which are produced in that muscle.
In fact it has been proved by Dubois Reymond that the acid reaction increases
302 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
in the muscles after contraction, and that the difference does not disappear by
keeping the muscle in a vacuum in order to cause the carbonic acid to exhale.
It should be further observed that the mechanical labor of the contraction is
not all the force which is excited in a muscle in that act. We shall see hereafter
that electricity is developed. What I wish to point out here is that heat also is
developed in a muscle in contraction. Bequerel did not make this fact apparent,
because he operated on an animal entire and alive, from which it resulted that
in the act of contraction the blood flowed into the muscles, and to this cireum-
stance was attributed the rise of the temperature.
I shall place before you direct proof, derived from a frog prepared, and, there-
fore, without blood, of the heating of a muscle by simple contraction. I take
two thermo-electric pairs of bismuth and antimony so arranged that the metals
of the same name communicate with each other ; the two bismuths, for instance,
are placed in communication and the two pieces of antimony are respectively
united to two extremities of a galvanometer. In this arrangement, if the two
pairs are heated to the same temperature there is no current produced, nor devia-
tion in the needle; but if one of the two pairs is a little warmer than the other,
there suddenly arises a current, which we call differential. It is in this way
only that we succeed in making quickly and satisfactorily a comparative ex-
periment of this kind.
Let us return to our experiment on the frogs; we prepare two a la galvani,
and into a thigh of one of them is introduced a thermo-electric pair, while the
other pair is placed in the thigh of the other frog. We wait till the equilibrium
of temperature is well established and the needle stands at zero, and then cause
one of the frogs to contract, at the instant the needle deviates, as if the thermo-
electric pair imbedded in the thigh of the frog which contracts were heated by
contact with a warm body. Hence the simple contraction of a muscle developes
heat.
All these considerations, on which, perhaps, I have dwelt too long, conduct
us necessarily to the conclusion—a very important one for the theory of electro-
physiological phenomena—that “the excitation of a nerve by means of a cur-
rent, as in the kindling of a mass of powder by a spark, gives rise in the mus-
cle to chemical phenomena; that is to say, increases the so-called muscular res-
piration ; and it is through these chemical phenomena and the mechanical labor
of the contraction, taking into account also the development of heat, that we
verify in effect the relation demanded by the mechanical theory of heat.” Thus
we see the important progress which this part of electro-physiology has made
in quite recent times.
Since from the chemical action of the muscular respiration there is a transi-
tion to the contraction of the muscle, it remains to discover by what mysterious
concatenation this transformation is accomplished. It is certainly not my inten-
tion to show, by an experiment, how these things take place in the muscle, but
only to make it better understood in what this mystery consists. I have herea
large electro-dynamic spiral, in the interior of which I have suspended a piece
of elastic wire or spring of soft iron. This last is fixed at top, and below is
united to a silk thread which is wound around a very delicate pulley. Around
the same pulley is wound in the contrary direction a silk thread, bearing a
weight which stretches the elastic wire to a certain point. Lastly, to the axis
of the pulley is attached a long index of ivory or straw. Every time that an
electric current passes in the spiral, the elastic iron wire is shortened, its coils
approach one another, and the index manifests the raising of the weight ; when
the electric current ceases the weight sinks, and the index moves in the oppo-
site direction. It is precisely the same alternation which you have witnessed
in the case of a muscle suspended in the dynamometer when the current begins
to act and when it ceases. In the experiment which I now exhibit the current
of the spiral magnetizes the coil of iron wire, and the constituent parts thus
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 303
magnetized are drawn towards one another. It is a well-known effect controlled
by recognized laws; the electric current is generated in the battery when there
is zine which is oxidized. In the muscle, also, there is this oxidation—there
is carbon which combines with the oxygen and burns, and through this chemi-
cal action there is heat, and therefore force, developed. But what are the mus-
cular elements corresponding to the magnetic elements? By what laws and
with what force are these elements moved, in order to produce the contraction 4
Herein consists the mystery; or, rather, let us call it one of the most subtle of
problems which physics and chemistry will one day assist physiology to re-
solve.
After these general propositions respecting the mechanism of contraction ex-
cited by the passage of the electric current in the nerves, we shall employ our-
selves in the next lecture in studying the relations existing between these elec-
tro-physiological effects and the direction of the current, its intensity, and its
course in traversing the nerves.
Lecture IIT.—Manner of representing the action of the current in contraction.—Experiment
of magnetic attraction within a spiral.—Laws of electro-physiology.—Different effect of
the current according to its direction in the neryes.—Errors introduced into experiments of
electro-physiology by derived currents.—Periods of Ritter and of Nobilii—Experiments of
Masianini.—Galvanoscopic frog and its use.—Electric excitation of the nerve reduced to
half when a given current is divided between two nerves.—The current does not act by
passing in a nerve transversely.
The whole of my last lecture was occupied—and I hope not uselessly—in
presenting some experiments and general considerations which give us an idea
of the mechanism by which electricity, acting on nerves and muscles, produces
muscular contraction. Unlike what takes place through the chemical, calorific,
and magnetic effects of the electro-current, which depend on the quantity of
electricity and on the duration of its action, electro-physiological effects are
manifested only during those variations of the electrical state which occur at the
closing and opening of the circuit; that is, in that minute interval of time in
which any conductor traversed by electricity is passing from the natural state to
the state of electro-dynamic equilibrium and vice versa. Independently of the
quantity of electricity, the electro-physiological action is proportional to the
velocity with which this variable state of the beginning and of the end of the
current is produced, and this explains how the least sparks or discharges of the
Leyden jar act strongly on the nerves and muscles, and how their action is
diminished or extinguished by causing these discharges to pass slowly through
conductors very long and imperfect.
When the quantity of the electricity and the velocity of the discharge com-
bine, we have, as in the case of lightning, the most violent electro-physiological
effects. It will be remembered also that the electric excitation of the nerve
does not determine muscular contraction, except by previously exciting the
chemical action of the muscular contraction.
Our attention should now be turned to the laws of electro-physiology—that
is, to the relations which exist between the physiological effects and the direc-
tion of the electrical current in the nerves, its intensity, the physiological properties
of thenerves, &c. Few are the parts of physics with which experimentalists have
occupied themselves so much as with this, and yet too few are the rigorous and
general conclusions at which they have arrived. For this reason I shall abstain
from detailing to you all that is known or is supposed to be known on this sub-
ject, and which may be more or less confirmed, more or less contradicted in
general, but shall restrict myself to the few propositions which have been
demonstrated by experiment, and regarding which there is no dispute.
#
304 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
Our consideration will first be directed to the different electro-physiological
effect of the discharge or electric current, according to the direction in which it
traverses the nerves. By the direction of the current, we know, is meant the
direction in which the positive fluid developed by the chemical action under-
gone by the zinc, and which is diffused in the liquid, moves in the interpolar
arc. Ina Leyden jar, of which the internal armature gives a discharge of posi-
tive electricity and the external of negative, the discharge is also said to be
directed from the internal armature to the external in the interpolar are. In
speaking of the current transmitted in the nerves, it will be understood that
this may be propagated either from the nervous centres to the extremities, in
which case it is called direct, descending, or centrifugal, or it may be propa-
gated from the extremities of the nerves to the nervous centres, being then
called inverse, ascending, or centripetal.
This being premised, our first proposition is as follows: “In the mixed
nerves, the first and sole effect obtained is the contraction produced at the
moment when the direct or descending current, rendered as little intense as
possible or propagated with the greatest slowness, begins to pass. On in-
creasing the intensity of the current or the velocity of the discharge, the second
electro-physiological effect which arises is the contraction excited, at the opening
of the circuit, by the inverse or ascending current; on still increasing the in-
tensity of the current the contractions occur at two other instants, namely, when
the direct current ceases and when the inverse begins to act. . These different
phenomena embrace to a certain point the known electro-physiological periods
of Ritter and Nobili, which chiefly consist in obtaining at first and while the
excitability of the nerve is yet very great, contraction as well at the opening
as at the closing of the circuit, whatever may be the direction of the current in
the nerve; and, during a succeeding period of less excitability, contraction at the
closing of the circuit only with the direct current, and contraction at the opening
only with the inverse current.”
I shall not describe all the different means which have been employed to
establish this proposition experimentally, but shall limit myself to an account
of that which has been practiced with most success, briefly indicating, however,
in passing, the various causes of error which occur in other modes of operating.
Our experiment consists in preparing the frog after the manner of Galvani,
in removing the muscles and bones of the pelvis, and cutting the symphysis of
this pelvis. In this way the frog is reduced to the two upper members, which
only remain united by means of the lumbar nerves connected with a portion of
the spine. It is readily perceived that by touching one of the extremities of
the frog or the corresponding nerve with a pole of the battery, and the other
member or its nerve with the other pole, we shall have at the same time and in
the same animal one of the nerves traversed by the direct, and in the other by
the inverse current. In this way we can test with more certainty and exact-
ness the effects developed by the current according to its direction in the nerves,
since it is the same current which passes at the same time in two directions in
two like nerves of the same animal. The nerve is not alternately subjected to
the current in opposite directions; moreover, the direction in which the nerves
are traversed by the current is well known, which is not the case when the
poles of the battery are applied to a nerve laid bare in an animal and surrounded
on all sides by muscles. We know in effect that when the poles of a battery
are immersed in a liquid and much extended mass, or two points of an extended
metallic plate are touched by two poles, the electricity is distributed through all
the points of those conductors, forming, as it were, So many minute threads radi-
ating from the points touched by the poles.
In the present case we must not forget that, by this diffusion of the current,
it may happen that while the nerve is traversed between the two poles by a
direct current from the positive to the negative pole, there may be in the same
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 305
nerve, beyond the poles, another portion of current, ealled derivative, opposite
in direction, and which may have a greater effect than the first. To represent
this case, let us suppose we have a piece of string or pack-thread slightly wet
and bent like the letter q inverted, the extremities of which touch a surface
forming a good conductor, such as a metallic plate. If we now apply two poles
of the battery to the string, we know that the electricity will divide into two
parts—that is, into one portion which traverses the string between the two poles,
and into another portion which circulates beyond them, and which, meeting in
the plate with a much better conductor than the string, may be even greater
than the first. What it most imports for us to notice is, that if the current in
the intermediate part of the nerve between the two poles be, for instance, drect,
in the lateral parts of the same nerve it will be imverse. Hence the confusion
which may arise in making an experiment under these conditions in order to
judge of the effects due to the direction of the current.
Let.us recur to the frog divided in half, and cause the discharge from the jar
to pass from one member to the other, or from one nerve to another, while the
animal is stretched on the metallic arms of the universal discharger. I have
recourse to the small Leyden jar, and which, after being charged by a few
turns of the machine, I discharge two or three times with a metallic are. Thus
reduced, so as no longer to yield signs of electricity with an electroscope, the
discharge is turned upon the extended frog, when that member alone which
communicates with the external armature, and the nerve of which, therefore, is
traversed by the direct discharge, will be observed to contract two or three
times in succession. In using the discharge of the jar we can only take ac-
count of the first effect, although in reality this must be composed of two oppo-
site phases, which immediately succeed one another. With induction, also—that
is, on generating an inductive current, as with the physiological effect, the dis-
charge of the jar acts in that phase only which corresponds to the closing of
the circuit in the case of the battery.
Let us substitute the battery for the jar, employing, however, the weakest
possible current. With this view I take a glass tube, having an internal diam-
eter of three or four millimetres, and a length of one metre; this tube is bent
to the form of an U, and is fixed upon a wooden table. Having filled it with
distilled water and plunged the metallic rheophores of the battery more or less
into the liquid column, we obtain in the circuit a strong resistance, varying ac-
cording to the length of the column. The frog having been prepared in the
usual manner, and extended on the two wires of the discharger, so that the
current shall traverse it from one member to the other, it follows that the cur-
rent in one of the nerves will be direct, in the other inverse. I begin by using
as long a column of water as possible, so that, whether from the greatly dimin-
ished intensity or the slowness with which the permanent electric state is estab-
lished, neither of the members of the frog is contracted, either at the opening
or closing of the circuit. I gradually diminish the height of the column of wa-
ter, and the first contraction which ensues is always that of the member whose
nerve is traversed by the direct current in the act of closing the circuit. I con-
tinue to diminish the liquid column, or, in other words, to increase the intensity
of the current, and a second contraction supervenes, that, namely, of the mem-
ber traversed by the inverse current at the opening of the circuit. If the cur-
rent be still augmented, both contractions show themselves as if at the same
instant ; that is, in the member traversed by the inverse current at the closing,
and in the other traversed by the direct current at the opening of the circuit.
By proceeding with our experiments on the same frog I might show that if the
current be now again reduced we shall repass through an inverse succession of
the same phenomena, and in the end obtain, with the weakest current, only a
contraction in the member traversed by the direct current and at the closing of
the circuit.
t
306 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
These effects are transformed into the periods of Ritter and of Nobili, by
using, at the beginning, an intense current. We should then see from the first
the two members of the frog contract simultaneously as well at the closing as
the opening of the circuit. Butin that case, whether it be that the nerves lose
excitability naturally or that this loss is hastened by the passage of the current
and the contractions excited, it results that, after twenty or thirty minutes,
more or less, according to the force of the current and the vitality of the ani-
mal, we have the phenomena of the so-called second period, which correspond
to those we obtained by using the fresh nerve and very weak current. When
the excitability of the nerve is diminished it is requisite that the current be
strong ; when the nerve is very excitable a feeble current is required.
The exposition which has been given establishes as the first, most simple,
and most general of electro-physiological phenomena the excitation of the nerve
at the commencement of the direct current. We also find it verified with the
dynamometer that a given direct current excites at the commencement of its
action the greatest muscular force. ‘This simplicity, however, is no longer mani-
fested when we operate on nerves entire and united to the nervous centres. It
is easy to lay bare in a rabbit or a dog two long tracts of the sciatic nerves,
and to cause a direct current to pass through one of them and an inverse cur-
rent through the other. In this case it is a constant result that the greater con-
traction of the leg occurs at the closing of the circuit with the direct current,
and the same contraction scarcely ever fails at the opening of the circuit in the
member traversed by the inverse current. But the phenomena are not so dis-
tinct as in the frog, nor indeed as in the rabbit and dog when the nerves are
divided at their exit from the spine. When this division is made, contraction
occurs at first with the inverse current at the closing of the circuit, and it is
necessary to prolong the passage of this current through ihe nerve if we would
cause the anomaly to disappear and the contraction again to occur at the cessa-
tion of the inverse current.
By operating upon dogs and rabbits we have the great advantage of being
able also to follow up the sensational effects which the current produces in the
animal. ‘The most constant phenomenon which is remarked in these cases, and
which Bellingeri and Marianini have also verified in the living frog, is that the
symptoms of pain arise when the direct current ceases and the inverse com-
mences ; that is, when the contractions terminate. At these two instants we
realize likewise contractions in the back of the animal, occasioned by the so-
ealled reflex action, as is proved, in effect, by dividing the spine at different
points, when those contractions become successively circumscribed between the
nerve irritated by the current and the point at which the spine is divided.
To these phenomena pertains an old experiment of Marianini, which has
been of late extensively studied and varied by an eminent French physiologist,
Dr. Chauveau, of Lyons. Marianini employed a voltaic pile of 50, or 60, or
100 elements; Chauveau uses apparatus of induction—that is, inductive currents.
The former closed the circuit of the battery with his two hands, after having
oistened them. This, it will be readily seen, is the experiment which we
have witnessed with the divided frog, one nerve of which is traversed by the
direct and the other by the inverse current. In the experiment of Marianini
in like manner there is an arm traversed by the direct current, being the one
which touches the negative pole, and in which the contractions are excited by
the electric streams which traverse the muscular mass, as well as those which
traverse the nerves in the direction of their ramification. In this arm, there-
fore, exist the conditions for rendering the shock and the contractions greater
than in the other arm.
In the experiments of Dr. Chauveau the two electrodes are applied at two
points, more or less widely separated, of the same muscular mass or of two
different muscles. He found that the greater contraction isalways in the proxi-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 307
mity of the negative pole. This result, it will be seen, bears an analogy to
that of Mavianini, and, without resorting to other hypotheses, we may establish
ourselves on that analogy. On this proposition is founded the use of the pre-
pared frog, to which I have given the name of the galvanoscopic frog, for detect-
ae not only the existence of the smallest variations of the aleetrie state, but
discovering also the direction in which the discharges or electric currents flow.
The galvanoscopic frog consists of a leg of a fros to which is united a long
nervous filament, being the sciatic portion, and also, if possible, the lumbar
portion. It is necessary to make this preparation rapidly in order that the nerve
and muscle may have the greatest possible vitality. When this instrument is
to be used, we place the leg on a surface of gutta-percha, or in the interior of
a glass tube which is held in the hand, and we touch two different points of the
nervous filament with any two points of the body in which the electro-motor
or power is supposed to exist. ‘This being done, however weak, the electric
current there will be a contraction in the galvanoscopic frog either at the closing
or the opening of the circuit. By corsidering the position of the nerve and,
the moment of the contraction, we can judge of the direction of the current in,
the nerve, whether it be direct or inverse.
We shall see more fully, in the next lecture, why it is proper, in using the
galvanoscopic frog to support it on an isolating surface ; the frog, like every
muscle, is an electro-motor, and without that precaution we should obtain the.
contractions and signs of the current through the effect of the muscular electro-
motor, and therefore through a cause which resides in the instrument itself.
When the above precaution is used, the galvanoscopic frog becomes the most;
delicate instrument which we know, and it will be seen in the ensuing lecture.
on animal electricity what frequent use is made of it. In the mean time I pro-.
pose to offer a single experiment with the galvanoscopie frog: for the purpose,
not only of conveying an idea of the sensibility of that instrument and of the
mode of using it, but of exhibiting an instance of electricity developed entirely
without metals. In this experiment I employ two long glass tubes filled with
quartz or powdered glass moistened with water, one of which is plunged in a
solution of potassa, and the other in a vessel of porous earth immersed in that
solution and full of nitric acid. With the nerve of the galvanoscopic frog I
touch the extremities of the columns of powdered: glass or quartz which com-
municate with the two liquids of the so-called battery of Becquerel. We then
see the frog contract, now at the closing, now at the opening of the circuit,
according to the position of the nerve. ‘Ihe current, we know, passes from the
potassa to the acid in the liquid, and circulates in the nerve from the tube of
glass immersed in the acid to the tube of glass immersed in the potassa. Hence
the frog immediately contracts when the free portion of the nerve touches the
tube immersed in the acid, and the portion next to the leg touches the tube im-
mersed in the potassa. We are justified, therefore, in the assertion that not only
is the galvanoscopic frog in the greater number of cases the most delicate
instrument we possess for discovering the presence of electricity, but that, prop-
erly used, it serves also to indicate the direction of the current.
A second proposition of electro-physiology is this: That by using, for the
excitation of a nerve, an electric current of very slight mtensity, and Sete there-
fore, that, being still further diminished, there would be perceived a correspond-
ing diminution in the muscular contraction, if this current be forced to divide
itself in half between two nerves, the eifect excited in the musele is reduced to
half what it was at the first instant when the current passed entire in the
nerve.”
At first sight this proposition seems contrary to the general definition which
we have given of electro-physiological effects: it has been our object to show
that these effects arising only at the beginning and at the end of the current,
and not during ime when the circuit remained closed, they were in some
308 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
manner independent of the quantity of electricity. Relying upon a physical
fact, of which the law and theory are known, I now add that the development
of the inducted currents only takes place when the action commences and when
it ceases; which does not, when all other circumstances are equal, prevent the
intensity of the inducted currents from being proportional to the intensity of
the inductive currents.
I arrange the experiment to demonstrate the above proposition by placing a
prepared frog in one of the dynamometers, using a very weak battery, and in-
troducing into the circuit a long column of pure water. In this way we employ
the current reduced to the point at which a greater diminution of it is manifested
by a diminution of the physiological effect. Having, then, already introduced
into the circuit great resistance, when the current is forced to pass through a
second nerve we see from the galvanometer that its intensity remains percep-
tibly the same. We have thus the certainty that there now passes in the first
nerve half the current which passed in the first experiment, when that nerve
alone was engaged. And if the expériment is well conducted, if we use in
the dynamometer a single muscle, and operate under the same conditions, we
shall see that the muscular force is approximately half as much as at first—that
is, that the weight attached to the muscle is no longer raised to more than half
the former height. We may therefore add that not only is the galvanoscopic
frog, properly employed, the most delicate galvanoscope we have, but it is also
a galvanometer.
The third well-established proposition in electro-physiology is this : “That
the electric current does not act, or that its action is at least extremely feeble,
when it is transmitted across the nerves, instead of traversing them in the di-
rection of their ramifications.”
In our present ignorance of the nature of the nervous agent and of its de-
pendence on the structure of the nerve, it is impossible to determine precisely
the significance of the relation; but we will admit @ priort that it has its
significance, and that it must be important. It would detain us too long to
recite here the various experiments upon the strength of which the above prop-
osition has, since the days of Galvani, been atime” or contradicted. After
having been long occupied with this subject, I will present to you that which
seems to me most conclusive.
You see fixed upon this cube of wood two parallel plates, one of zine and
one of copper. I place between them a strip of moistened paper so as to form
abattery. In effect, when I touch the two plates at the same time with a me-
tallic wire, I am certain that the current circulates in this wire, and that at the
same time the strip of paper is traversed by as many threads of the electric
current all parallel to one another, of equal intensity, and directed from one plate
to the other. We have the means of rendering this propagation of electricity
in the liquid stratum evident. It consists in dividing the liquid stratum into
two parts with a metallic diaphragm, which is a lamina of platina, and in using
for a liquid that mixture of acetate of lead and of copper with which the
celebrated electro-chemical exhibitions of our Nobili are tourd best to succeed.
On causing the current to pass, if electrodes be used which have the same
section with the liquid stratum, we shall see in a few moments the interposed
lamina become colored equally at all points ; and as this color proceeds from a
stratum of matter deposited by an electro-chemical effect, and as its color
depends, through a most delicate optical property, on the thickness of the
deposited stratum, if the current had not the same intensity at all points, we
should be quickly apprised of it by the difference of color. As this is not
so, the filaments of the current which traverse the liquid from one electrode to
the other have the same intensity at all points and are parallel.
Let us return to the former experiment. I prepare the galvanoscopie frog
and dispose the long fibre of its nerve on the moistened pa hich is between
@
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 309
>
the two plates of the battery. If the fibre is disposed transversely, in which
direction it is certain there can be no filament of electricity which traverses the
nerve parallel to its axis, there will be no contraction seen in the frog when I
set the battery in action by touching the two plates with the metallic wire. And
observe that while I thus operate, the whole long nervous fibre is stretched upon
the paper and is perpendicularly traversed by the current at all points.
I now invert the position of the nerve and stretch it, though to a much shorter
extent, in such a way that the electric stream traverses it parallel to its length.
Immediately contractions ensue, now at the opening, now at the closing of the
circuit, provided the current is very weak, or the nerve has already lost a little
of its excitability. It is beyond doubt, therefore, that the effect of the current
upon a nerve is null, or at least extremely feeble, when the former traverses the
nerve in a direction perpendicular to its length. It is not without importance
to remark that whether we conceive the excitation of the nerve by the current
to be due to a species of mechanical effect which is propagated towards the
muscles or towards the nervous centres, or whether we consider that excitation
under the analogy which it may bear to electro-dynamic action in general, we
may, to a certain point, comprehend this difference of the action of the electric
current according as it is propagated along the axis or perpendicularly to the
axis of the nerve. ;
Whether we use in making these experiments the discharges of the jar or the
inducted currents, when the two electrodes are applied directly on the nerve,
now transversely and now along the axis, it may be easily understood how diffi-
cult it must be, with this arrangement, to realize the conditions of the experi-
ment, and how it may happen that the currents should be always very strong,
and that there should be always a portion of the electric filaments which traverse
the nerve in a direction more or less parallel to the axis. In the mode in which
we have operated these causes of error are removed, and therefore this prepo- .
sition may be received as demonstrated by experiment.
Lecture 1V.—Electro-physiological laws.—Effect of the continuous current on the excitability
of the nerve.—The inverse current exalts the excitability of the nerve and the direct ex-
tinguishes it.—Tetanic contraction produced in a muscle, the nerve of which was traversed
by the inverse current at the moment of opening the circuit.—Secondary electro-motive
power of the nerves and its application to the phenomena excited by the inverse current at
the opening of the circuit.—Action of the current on the roots of the nerves.—Correction
of the mode of interpreting the results of Longet and Matteucci with derived currents.—
Action of electricity on the ganglionic system.—Medical uses of electricity —Aneurism.—
Tetanus.—Cure of paralysis.
To complete the first part of this course, that, namely, relating to the phe-
nomena which the current produces in its passage through the nerves and
muscles of an animal either living or recently killed, it remains to consider par-
ticularly the action which the current exerts on the properties of the nerve by
continuing to pass for a long time through it. On this occasion I shall be en-
abled to give an explanation of the electro-physiological phenomena which are
manifested at the opening of the circuit; an explanation which, from being
founded on known physical laws, constitutes one of the most important ad-
vances made in the science of electro-physiology in later times.
Let us resume the usual preparation of the frog—that is, the frog, after Gal-
vani’s manner, cleft in the middle and traversed by the electric current from one
member to the other. With this arrangement we can have, as was said in the
preceding lecture, two nerves derived from the same animal and traversed simul-
taneously, one by the direct and the other by the inverse current, and be thus
enabled conveniently to compare their state. The experiment may be prepared
either by placing the frog astride between two small goblets filled with common
310 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. P
waier in which are plunged the two electrodes of a battery, or by directly ap-
plying these electrodes to the two nerves.
It is known in physics that when the current traverses a liquid by means of
two electrodes of platina, the products of the electrization—that is, the oxygen
and the acids which go to the positive pole, the hydrogen and oxides which go
to the negative pole—become tenaciously fixed on the metals of the electrodes,
s0 as to give place, by closing the circuit between these alone, to a current which
we call secondary, and which has a contrary direction to the current of the bat-
tery ; because, as is known in electro-chemistry, the current developed between
hydrogen and oxygen, between an oxide and an acid, passes in the liquid from
the first to the second. And that current, in effect, would be obtained in the
same manner if those plates of platina which form the electrodes had been for
a certain time immersed, the one in the hydrogen gas or the potassa, the other
in the oxygen gas or the acid.
When the current is made to pass by means of the electrodes of platina placed
on the nerves of the prepared frog, then, too, the secondary polarity is produced,
and hence at the opening of the circuit of the battery and by closing the circuit
of the electrodes alone we have the secondary current, which is capable of ex-
citing the muscular contraction. If we wish, in some very delicate experiments,
to avoid this secondary polarity, we use for electrodes, instead of wires of platina,
wires of zine amalgamated, and between these and the nerves is interposed a
eard moistened with a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc. Under these con-
ditions, as I shall show in the sequel, the secondary polarity disappears entirely
or nearly so, and hence there is a method, the great utility of which we shall
presently see, of excluding from the circuits into which animal electro-motors :
enter, such as the muscles or organs of electrical fish, the secondary current,
which, as being opposed to that of these electro-motors, fails not to diminish and
even entirely destroy it.
Let us turn to the experiment with which I propose to show the action ex-
erted by the continuous current on the excitability of the nerves, according to
the direction in which it traverses them. In order that there may be no uncer-
tainty in the results, and that you may have before you different proofs of the
same truth, I have arranged four similar experiments, viz: four frogs prepared
alike and all traversed from one extremity to the other by the electric current.
If the experiment is newly prepared we already know what occurs. When
I open the circuit the member traversed by the inverse current alone contracts ;
and when I again cause the current to pass, that member contracts through
which flows the direct current. ‘This first experiment never fails when we use
the frog recently prepared and possessing much vitality or a very strong cur-
rent, ba at first the two members contract as well at the opening as the closing
of the circuit; but after a few moments the phenomenon appears, which may be
distinguished as normal, namely, contraction in the member, which for brevity
we il call direct, at the closing of the circuit, and contraction in the inverse
member when the circuit is opened.
Before proceeding further, I must notice an important observation of Maria-
nini: that the contraction corresponding to the opening of the circuit is mani-
fested even when there has been no contraction at the closing. ‘To show this,
instead of causing the current to pass by immersing the electrodes of the battery
in the water, I close the circuit with a conductor moist but not thoroughly wet,
such as would be supplied by our fingers or a piece of flannel or cotton dipped
in the water of one of the goblets. In this way the water penetrating layer by
layer into the material or the hand, the current also enters and increases from
degree to degree in the circuit, and hence the contraction is absent; not so, how-
ever, when the circuit is interrupted—then the passage of the Sonning ceases of
a sudden and the contraction is obtained.
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. dll
T should also point out a mode of producing the contractions by the opening
of the circuit, which, however simple, might, in minds not habituated to reason-
ing upon these experiments, give occasion to erroneous interpretations. I take
a frog prepared as usual, and, after passing the current for some time, touch with
a small pencil, wet with water or some other liquid, the nerve traversed by the
direct current—no result ensues; I touch the other nerve with the wet pencil,
and instantly violent contractions tqke place in this member. When this ex-
periment is seen for the first time, it is not easy to hit upon the cause of the
phenomenon, though very simple, and one might almost be induced to surmise
a specific action of the liquid on the two nerves. But with a little reflection it
is readily understood that when the nerve traversed by the inverse current is
wet with a drop of water, this drop, which envelopes the nerve, has upon that
nerve the effect of an opening of the circuit; the current leaves the nerve to
enter into the liquid, which conducts it much better, and we have the contraction
at the opening of the circuit in the member traversed by the inverse current.
These considerations being premised, it is time to see what takes place in the
ease of the prepared frog submitted from fifteen to twenty minutes or more to
the passage of a current. At the moment I open the circuit the member
traversed by the inverse current, and that alone, undergoes contraction, and for
the most part remains tetanized or rigid for several seconds. If I then close
the circuit there is no contraction either in the inverse member or in that per-
meated by the direct current; or if there be any in the latter it is slight, and
ceases after the same experiment has been repeated three or four times. If the
circuit be reclosed immediately after having been opened, that is during the time
when the inverse member is still tetanized, we shall see this member relax and
contraction cease. This experiment is equally verified if the current be made
to pass directly from nerve to nerve without traversing the muscles; only in this
ease the described effect is produced in less time than when the current traverses
the entire animal. The same results are witnessed when we operate on the living
frog or the higher animals; but here the effect is produced more slowly, and it is
with difficulty that we realize in the living animal that prolonged tetanic con-
traction displayed in the inverse member of the prepared frog on opening the
circuit.
‘These results conduct us to the following proposition: “A continuous current
transmitted in a mixed nerve modifies the excitability of the nerve in a different
and it may even be said an opposite manner, according to its direction; the direct
current enfeebles and destroys the excitability of the nerve, while the inverse
intreases it within certain limits. The time necessary for the current to produce
these effects is proportional to the degree of excitability of the nerve and in in-
verse ratio to the intensity of the current. After the opening of the circuit the
effects of the current have a tendency to disappear, and so much the more rapidly
as the excitability of the nerve is greater and the current employed was weaker.”
It is important to show that independently of the use of the electric current,
the two nerves which have been traversed by that current have acquired a dif-
ference of excitability—that is to say, that in the nerve traversed by the direct
current the excitability is much diminished or even extinguished, white on the
other hand it is preserved or increased in the nerve traversed by the inverse
current. For this purpose I take away one of the prepared frogs which has
been subjected to the passage of the current, and touch first one and then the
other of its nerves with a piece of potassa or hot iron, or wound them with the
forfex. Whichsoever of these means is employed to excite the nerve, you will
see contraction take place if I operate on the nerve which transmitted the in-
verse current, while none occurs from similar action on the nerve traversed by
the direct current.
The above proposition brings to view and at the same time explains the phe-
nomenon discovered by Volta, which is still called in electro-physiology the
312 CLECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
phenomenon of voltaic alternatives. It was Volta who first observed that on
causing an electric current to pass for a long time in a frog until contraction had
ceased, this phenomenon was realized anew when the current was made to pass
in the opposite direction.
The exact analysis of this phenomenon is as follows: We have here the frog
cleft, as usual, in the middle and traversed for a certain time by the current; it
is thus reduced to the state in which there is no logger contraction, except in
the inverse member at the opening of the circuit. I reverse the position of the
electrodes or of the frog, previously staining with a drop of ink the member
which was traversed by the direct current, and which no longer contracted.
The current being allowed again to pass fer a certain time, the limb which no
longer contracted, and which is now traversed by the inverse current, begins
anew to be contracted, while at the closing of the circuit you have observed the
other limb contract through the action of the direct current, which before did
not oceur, and this from the excitability maintained in its nerve by the inverse
current. In a word, the voltaic alternatives proceed from the different action
which the current exerts on the nerves according to its direction: in the inverse
nerve the excitability is preserved and augmented, so that when the direct eur-
rent begins to pass, the contraction is excited, which would not be the case if
the nerve had not undergone the effect of the inverse current or had been sub-
jected to the direct current; in the direct nerve the transmission of the inverse
current restores the excitability, so that it again contracts at the opening of the
circuit.
It is by means of the dynamometer that this important proposition has been
rigorously demonstrated. We easily contrive to have both halves of the same
frog with a portion of the spine so fixed in the dynamometer that we can insert
the lower hook now in one, and now in the other leg, and cause successively °
the same direct current to pass in one of the nerves and the inverse in the other.
By then measuring the elevations obtained in the different experiments we arrive
at an exact determination of the proposition in question. ‘Thus we see that, in
causing the direct current to pass at certain intervals of time by opening and
immediately closing the cireuit, the contraction due to this current decreases
with great rapidity ; yet it may be restored and with greater strength, at least
within certain limits, either by abbreviating the passage of the current or by
repeating its action after having left the circuit open long enough for the effect
of the current to disappear. It is quite different with the inverse current.
With this we see the contraction remain constant in the other half of the frog
under a frequent repetition of the passage of the current. The effect of the
inverse current may also be distinctly seen by causing it to pass, first fora
fraction of a second, and then for three, four, or five seconds. In this way we
obtain a contraction at the opening of the circuit which increases within these
limits in proportion to the time of the passage of the current.
This experiment is even ‘more conclusive when the inverse current is made to
act upon a nerve whose excitability has been weakened by the passage of the
direct current; to obtain the maximum of contraction it is necessary that the
passage of the inverse current should be prolonged for a space of time extending
from twenty-five to thirty seconds. When we operate on the animal alive or
recently killed, it is sufficient, in order to dispel the effects of the continuous
passage of the current direct or inverse, to leave the frog to itself, that is, out-
side the cireuit. It will be found that the nerve which has lost its excitability
through the direct current becomes from repose again capable of contraction by
means of the same current.
I cannot leave this subject without calling your attention anew to-the fact
already noticed of the tetanic and prolonged contraction, by which the member
traversed by the inverse current is attacked after a passage of thirty or forty
minutes. ‘This fact has in latter times furnished, through a known physical
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. alg
theory, an explanation of the electro-physiological phenomena which arise at the
opening of the circuit, and has thus laid a foundation for the most important
progress recently made in electro-physiology. The frog which I exhibit is pre-
pared as usual and has been subjected to the passage of the current. I open
the circuit, and on the instant the member traversed by the inverse current is
attacked by the tetanic contraction. It may be shown by a very clear experiment
that this contraction depends on a particular state into which the lumbar nerve
has been thrown by the passage of the inverse current. In effect, if I interrupt
the circuit by cutting this nerve at the point of its exit from the spine, the
tetanie contraction ensues as usual, while it fails entirely if the nerve be cut
precisely at its entrance into the muscles. But in what consists this particular
state of the nerve? It is to this question that a recent physical discovery fur-
nishes an answer.
We know what secondary polarity is, and I have before said that it is devel-
oped in the nervous fibres as in any moist conductor, such as is afforded by a
strip of paper or of flannel imbued with a saline solution. Let us observe now
the principal experiment. I take the sciatic nerve of a fowl, place it upon a
handle of gutta-percha and convey it to the galvanometer; after having ascer-
tained, by touching with the extremities of the galvanometer two points in the
surface of this large nerve, that there is no sign therein of a current, I deposit
the nerve on the two electrodes of platina or of moistened paper of a battery of
eight or ten elements of Grove. I cause the current to pass for several minutes,
and then return with the nerve to the galvanometer. I now obtain a very strong
current in a direction opposite to that of the battery, and which, according to all
analogy, is a current due to secondary polarity. In effect, this current is mani-
fested in a nerve deprived of life for many hours or even several days, as in the
nerve taken in the living animal; it is manifested in a wet string, the stalk of a
green plant, or any solid body imbued with a liquid.
The passage of the current collects hydrogen and the bases at the points
touched by the negative pole, oxygen and acids at the points touched by the
positive pole. These products of electrization are gradually diffused through
the moist solid body, and transform it through its whole length into a secondary
electro-motor. It may be shown, indeed, that in a fowl which has been prepared
precisely like the frog, reduced, namely, to the pelvis, a piece of spine, the two
large lumbar nerves, and the legs, and which has been traversed by the current
from one leg to the other, the two nerves have acquired the secondary electro-
motor power, without having been touched directly by the electrodes of the
battery.
After having discovered the secondary electro-motive property in the nerves,
I have also ascertained that this has not the same intensity at all points, and
that the portion of the nerve placed near the positive pole, and in which the cur-
rent enters, has acquired this property in a much stronger degree than the
portion situated near the negative pole. This experiment also may be easily
shown. I take the nerve after it has been subjected to the passage of the cur-
rent, cut it in half, and reverse the position of one of the halves, reproducing
the piece of nerve as before. As we know that the nerve has become, by the
passage of the current at all its points, an electro-motor, the operation I have
performed would be the same as if I had ten pairs of Volta, all in series, and
then opened the battery in the middle by reversing five of these pairs, and re-
established the communication by replacing two zines and two coppers together.
Thus we have two opposite half batteries, whence, if the pairs have all the same
electro-motive force, the two batteries are neutralized. But if one of the batteries
is the stronger, we at once obtain the differential current, that is, a current due
to the excess of the stronger battery. In like manner, if those two portions of
the nerve which the current has converted into a secondary electro-motor have
not the same force, I shall at once perceive it after having performed the division
314 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
and placed one of the halves in opposition to the other. And, in fact, when I
apply the nerve thus prepared to the galvanometer, I find a strong differential
current, which is in the direction of the piece of the nerve which was next to the
positive pole.
Hence it is a plain consequence deduced from a known physical theory, that,
namely, of the secondary polarity, that a nerve becomes an electro-motor by the
passage of the current, and is therefore in a condition to give a secondary current,
when the current of the battery has ceased. Ina word, a nerve after having
been traversed by a voltaic current is traversed by the secondary current,
which is in an opposite direction to that of the battery, and which may circulate
in those parts of the nerve in which the secondary polarization is not developed,
and which is certainly neutralized and produces a discharge through, the great
difference of the secondary electro-motor power in different points of the same
nerve. Thus is explained, with all probability, in what consists the state which
we termed unknown, into which the nerve traversed by the inverse current
which excites the tetanic contraction in the muscles of the frog is thrown. This
nerve is none other than that portion next to the positive pole which is traversed
by the current, and which has been shown to have acquired the strongest second-
ary electro-motor power; it is therefore that piece of the nerve which, after the
opening of the circuit, is traversed by the discharge or by the secondary current,
which is at once the strongest and most prolonged; and as the secondary cur-
rent is always in an opposite direction to the current of the battery which has
excited it, it follows that in the inverse nerve the secondary current is direet—
that is to say, is in the direction which was shown from the first of our propo-
sitions to have the strongest electro-physiological action. Moreover, the efiect
of this secondary current must be further enhanced, because we know that the
inverse current maintains the excitability of the nerve, and this perhaps in turn
arises from the fact that the inverse current does not excite contraction, and
does not, so to speak, consume the muscle, as does the direct current.
In conclusion, the contractions occasioned in a muscle, the nerve of which has
been traversed by the continuous inverse current, are attributable, im all proba-
bility, to the physiological effect of the secondary current, which is direct. And
that this current or direct secondary discharge exists is proved by the galvano-
meter, as has been already made apparent, and is proved also by the galvano-
scopic frog. In effect, if I apply the nerve of this frog to the nerve of the fowl
which was traversed by the inverse current, we see, immediately after opening
the circuit, the galvanoscopic frog undergo contraction, and especially if we
place its nerve close to those points which are nearest to the positive pole and
in a suitable direction.
I must not omit to cite an important observation recently made by Pfluger,
which will perhaps some day find a place among the electro-physiological phe-
nomena, depending on the secondary electro-motor power of the nerves. Pfluger
has found that while a nerve is traversed by a continuous current, “the excita-
bility is augmented beyond the region or points touched by the negative electrode,
and so much the more as the point observed is nearer to the electrode. The
contrary is the case beyond the positive electrode, where, on the other hand, the
excitability is diminished.” 'To make this experiment, Pfluger causes a contin-
uous current to pass in the sciatic nerve of a galvanoscopie frog, and then sub-
mits this nerve at the points not traversed by the current to the action of different
stimulating bodies, as, for instance, water impregnated more or less with salt, and
the action of which had been previously determined. He then finds that the
stimulus, which applied to a certain point of the nerve does not excite contraction,
is capable of producing that effect when the nerve is traversed by the current,
if that point be near the negative electrode. On the other hand, a stimulus, capable
of exciting contraction, excites it no longer when the nerve is traversed by the
current, if applied towards the positive electrede. These curious facts have
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 315
been attributed by the physiologists of Germany toa particular state of the
nerve, with which we shall occupy ourselves further on, and which they term
electro tonic. Before acquiescing in that hypothesis, it would have been proper
to inquire what influence may be exerted by the products of the electrization
collected on the nerve in contact with the electrodes upon the composition, and
hence upon the physiological properties of the stimulating substances used by
Pfluger. Moreover, we have found that the effects of the secondary electro-
motor power of the nerve extend beyond the points touched by the electrodes.
Thus, between the portion of the nerve outside of the positive electrode, and the
points touched by that electrode, there is a secondary current in the nerve in the
direction of the current of the battery. Beyond the negative electrode also
there is a secondary current, which has been found much stronger than that
produced beyond the positive electrode, and which is also directed like the cur-
rent of the battery. ‘The origin of these currents and their direction is under-
stood without difficulty, when we remember that they depend on the currents
excited between the portions of the nerves which we will term neutral, and the
oints which, by having been in contact with or very near the electrodes, are
Fe thed, one with an acid, the other with an alkaline liquid. These secondary
electro-motor powers outside of the poles may well intervene in the effects
observed by Pfluger.
After having explained, perhaps somewhat too diffusely, the application of
the secondary electro-motor power of the nerves to the electro-physiological
phenomena which are excited at the opening of the circuit, I shall proceed to
speak briefly of the knowledge we possess, imperfect though it be, respecting
the action of the current in the muscles alone, in the central parts of the ner-
vous system, and upon the nerves of the ganglionic system.
When a current or a discharge is made to pass through a muscle, contrac-
tion is excited, and this takes place, as is natural, independently of the direction
of the current. 'This contraction is sometimes persistent: thus, when the dis-
charge of a jar is made to pass through the gastrocnemian detached from a
living frog, this muscle is seen to be shortened by even one-fourth or more of
its length and to remain shortened. We might say that the parts of a muscle,
when the nervous action is extinguished or guasz extinguished, tend to approach
one another, and, once in this condition, remain so, as occurs after death in re-
gard to the cadaveric rigidity.
I have already said that Chauveau has, in late times, varied the = fecniews
made on the muscles by applying the inducted current on the muscular mass,
and has found that the greater and more persistent contraction always occurs in
contact with the negative electrode. We have explained this phenomenon as
far as is yet in our power, by attributing it to the action of the drect current
on the nerves of this muscular mass. 1 will further recall that the contractions
excited by the current in the muscles of a frog killed with the poison of cwrare,
and the nerves of which have lost all trace of excitability, prove that the mus-
cular fibre alone, independently of the nerves, contracts under electricity as
under other stimulants.
Many years since Longet and I studied the action of the electric current on
the spinal radicles ; that is, on those simple nerves which, according to the dis-
covery of Charles Bell, possess separately either the property of exciting con-
traction or that of occasioning pain when they are irritated. A long series of
experiments, which were afterwards verified in Germany and elsewhere, con-
ducted us to results which were chiefly noticeable for being opposed to those
set forth in our first proposition, which are obtained in the “mixed nerves. In
effect, by operating with the direct current on the anterior radicles, no. contrac-
tion was obtaining at the closing, as there was at the opening of the circuit ;
with the inverse current contraction takes place at the closing and none at the
opening. We are now able to say that this anomaly is removed in consequence
316 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
of an ingenious observation made by the French physiologists, Rousseau and
Martin-Magron. In the experiments made by Longet and myself, the spinal
radicle was not separated from the spine, but was simply raised to the handle
(ansa) with a silk thread or by an isolating surface placed beneath it. In this
mode of operating, as has been already shown, the greater portion of the cur-
rent does not pass in the nerve directly from one electrode to the other by the
shortest interval, but flows beyond the poles, being discharged into the neigh-
boring conductor, whence it is that in the portion of the nerve next to the mus-
cle the derived current has a direction opposite to that of the portion of the cur-
rent which passes from pole to pole by the shortest interval. I recur to the
experiment, before exhibited, of the wet string or cord bent in the form 9, and
which descends upon a stratum which is a good conductor. If I cause the
current to pass in the upper portion of the string we shall see a contraction in
the galvanoscopic frog whose nerve is extended on the string or on the con-
ducting surface beyond the poles; this contraction is certainly the effect of the
so-called derived current. ‘lherefore, to explain the effects of the current on
the spinal radicles, it,is necessary to decide which of these two portions of cur-
rent is that whose physiological action is in the ascendency. I will first state
that if, instead of operating on the spinal radicles still united to the medulla
and lifted to the handle with a silk thread, we cut these radicles at their de-
parture from the spine and keep their ends free, it will then be found that the
electric current acts as on the mixed nerves.
In this arrangement the derived current beyond the poles can no longer
exist; it was this current, therefore, which interfered in the case of the anoma-
lies observed by Longet and myself. And, in fact, it is easy to prove, in regard
to any mixed nerve, that in proportion as its excitability is extinguished, this
excitability continues to retreat towards the muscles if the current is so em-
ployed as to excite contraction, and, on the other hand, that it retires towards
the nervous centres when the effects of sensation are contemplated. No wonder,
then, if in our experiments on the spinal radicles it was the derived current
acting in the portion of the nerve nearest to the muscle whose action was the
prevalent one. Of this an experimental proof can be given. ‘Take, in order
to form one of the electrodes, a small fork of two branches and apply this fork
to the nerve of a galvanoscopic frog, while the other electrode is placed midway
between the points of the fork. If now the middle electrode be, for example,
the positive one, the current is divided into two branches, one descending and
the other ascending ; and although these two portions of current be equal, it
will be found that the prevailing effects are those due to the descending portion
which is nearest to the muscle.
The same explanation applies to the experiments recently made by,Dr. Rad-
cliffe, by causing the current to pass through one of the lumbar nerves of a frog
prepared in Galvani’s manner. If this nerve is raised to the handle and the
current be made to pass in the portion thus raised, contractions are excited in
the member whose nerve is not traversed by the current and which evidently
depend on the portion of the current which circulates beyond the poles, and
which, hence, invades the other lumbar nerve.
The investigation has been extended to the action of the current on different
parts of the brain of an animal alive or recently killed, and it was simply found
that the current acted there like mechanical stimulants applied to those parts.
By eperating with electricity on the ear or eye, the effects occasioned are sensa-
tions characteristic of the excitation of the nerves of those organs. As regards
the ear it is known that the passage of the current excites a continuous sound ;
in the eye a luminous sensation is produced at the beginning and at the termina-
tion of the passage of the current, as if the effect depended on a mechanical
action undergone by the eye and due to the contractions of the muscles of the
eye itself. ‘Vhese studies are deserving of greater development.
.
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. out
I shall say a word, finally, of the action of the current on the ganglionic
nerves. Humboldt first studied the action of the current on the cardiac plexus
and on the ganglionic system of the lower belly. In the former case he ob-
served, and it was afterwards verified by others, that on keeping the circuit
closed for a certain time the pulsations of the heart show no difference, but that
if the electric excitation be continued these pulsations become more frequent,
and that this frequency lasts for a certain time after the current has ceased to
pass. When the ganglionic system of the lower belly is operated upon with
the current, an analogous fact is noticed. The vermicular motion of the intes-
tines is by degrees accelerated, and this acceleration also continues for a certain
time after the opening of the circuit. In these two effects the electric excita-
tion of the ganglionic nervous system would seem to differ from that of the
mixed nerves in being, as regards the former, continuous during the passage of
the current, slower in manifesting itself and slower in ceasing.
This subject, as well in its therapeutic applications as its physiology, calls
for renewed investigation and more thorough research, especially as regards
man himself; and its prosecution should be directed, among other things, to
determining with exactness the quantity of urea in the urine, the quantity of
earbunic acid exhaled, the varied composition of the bile and of the products
of digestion, according as man or the animal experimented upon has under-
gone for a longer or shorter time the action of the current, both interrupted and
continuous.
This study would be of so much the more interest as we now know that the
ganglionic system acts on the sanguineous vessels at one time by constricting,
at another by dilating them. This has been verified in the valuable experi-
ments of Budge and Bernard. After having divided, in a living animal, a cer-
tain nervous fibre which receives at least in part its action from the ganglionic
system, through which division the ear of the corresponding part becomes much
warmer than the other and is engorged with blood, the physiologists just named
found that, by exciting with the current the peripherous portion of the same
fibre, the circulation of the blood was restored and the elevation of temperature,
which was but a secondary effect, disappeared. It is probable that in the fune-
tions of secretion and in the physio-chemical action of nutrition analogous
effects would present themselves.
I cannot conclude this lecture, which completes the study of the physiologi-
eal phenomena excited by electricity, being the first part of this course, without a
glance at the therapeutic uses of electricity. After the discovery of the Leyden
jar, and even later, after that of the voltaic pile, the new and singular effects of
electricity had,so exalted the imagination of the students of therapeutics that
the mysterious agent of life, the universal medicine, was supposed to have been
found. ‘These fantastic expectations were of course soon dissipated, and there
remained, as there will continue to remain, in the science only the results of
observations well and diligently made and specifically founded on clectro-
physiological researches.
As it had been observed that albumen coagulated around the positive elec-
trode, and this through the acid developed by electrization and which coagu-
lates the albumen as any free acid would do, it was inferred that the electric
current might dispel the cataract, if in the no longer transparent erystalline an
alkali were generated with the negative electrode. In making the experiment
of the electrization of albumen, the coagulum is seen to be formed around the
two electrodes, although, as might be expected, in a greater degree around the
positive than the negative one, but it is never found that, by inverting the cur-
rent, the albumen which has coagulated around the positive electrode is dis-
persed, because this electrode has become negative. Hence it is that with the
electric current not only can the cataract not be cured, but, on the other hand,
it may with great certainty be created.
&
318 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
The use of the electric current has been also proposed for dissolving calculi
in the bladder. To judge of this method it is sufficient to recollect that the
caleuli are formed of materials insoluble m the urine, and that the current can-
not decompose an insoluble compound. For the proposed purpose it would be
necessary to fill the bladder in which the calculus exists with a concentrated
alkaline solution, through which a very intense electric current should be made
to pass:
Some cases have been cited of the cure of aneurismal sacs by the method
of Petrequin. ‘This surgeon having introduced into the sae needles of steel,
brought into close proximity or nearly into contact, caused a strong electric cur-
rent to pass through them. ‘Through the heat produced or other cause, coagu-
lated masses are formed in the sac, an inflammatory process is excited in its
parietal surfaces, and favorable results seem to have been realized from the prac-
tice, as in the case also of incipient and limited aneurisms. The employment
of a very fine wire of platina, rendered incandescent by the electric current,
has been proposed in surgery for the purpose of cauterizing and promptly sepa-
rating the polypus in any concealed situation. Ruhmkorff has suggested the
use of the electric light to render visible the morbid state of certain deeply-
seated parts of the body. Professor Burci, by causing a strong electric current
to pass through an extra-uterine foetus, destroyed its vitality, and the foetus was
then gradually dislodged.
It is, however, in the cure of tetanus and paralysis that the application of
electricity has been most confidently and persistently relied on. ‘These eures
rest upon the electro-physiological facts with which we have become acquainted.
The direct and continuous current destioys the excitability of the nerve—that
is, places the nerve in a state which may be considered analogous to that of a
nerve paralyzed. ‘The inverse current, on the other hand, increases that excita-
bility, and within certain limits restores it when it is lost. This is the case of
the voltaic alternatives already brought to your notice. It will be remembered
also that at the opening of the circuit we have seen the member which had been
traversed for a certain time by the inverse current attacked by a strong tetanic
contraction which lasted many seconds; to cause a cessation of this contraction
it is sufficient to re-establish the continuous passage of the current. We have
further seen, by causing to pass in the nerves of a living animal a current inter-
rupted by means of a wheel of interruption, or an apparatus of electro-magnetic
induction, which has the interrupter of De la Rive in the circuit of the battery,
that the animal is seized with Violent tetanic convulsions which soon destroy it.
These strong and continued contractions naturally consume a large supply of
nervous power, and in so short a time that it cannot be restored by the organ-
ism; in this lies, perhaps, the mysterious action of certain poisons which operate
on the nervous system with so much energy.
IT will finally adduce an observation which is easily comprehended, and which
may assist in explaining the mode of the action of electricity in paralysis. - Let
us suppose that we divide the motor nerves of the two lower members of a living
frog, and that, for a certain time, We every day irritate one only of these nerves.
If, after that time, we test with the usual stimulants the degree of muscular
irritability of the muscles of the two members, we shall always find that this
irritability is much greater in the muscles made to contract daily than in those
which have continued in repose.
Such are the facts and principles upon which is scientifically founded the use
of electricity for the cure of tetanus, and especially of paralysis. With a view
to overcome the tetanic contractions, it is necessary, upon the principles above
set forth, to subject the patient to a continuous current. I know of but one case
of an attempt of this kind. During the passage of the current the sufferings of
the subject were alleviated; but unfortunately, because perhaps in this instance
tetanus was the effect of an inflammation excited by the presence of extraneous
’
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 319
bodies, the melioration was but transient. But if the electric treatment had no
other object than to mitigate the tortures of so intractable a malady, I deem it
incumbent on physicidns to make new trials of the application of the continuous
electric current on this form of disease.
The electric treatment of paralysis is founded on such a number of cures as
to justify us in regarding it as an important resource. I shall abstain, however,
from minutely describing all the distinctions which have been drawn by thera-
peutists between the effects of the currents, according as they are obtained
directly with the battery or inducted in different modes. These distinctions are,
in a scientific, view so obscure that, before taking them into consideration, it
would be necessary to be assured, as we certainly are not at present, that they
are founded on a large number of observations accurately made.
The cure of paralysis is conducted with interrupted currents, by applying the
electrodes on the moistened skin of the extremities of the paralyzed members.
According to the principles above established, if the paralysis is that of sensa-
tion, the direct current should be employed, while, on the other hand, the inverse
current should be preferred for the paralysis of contraction. It is proper to
commence with very weak currents, to suspend frequently the application of
electricity, to make at first short applications and gradually to prolong their
duration. All physicians who have conscientiously tried these electric cures
acknowledge that recovery is not to be expected till after treatment of long
duration, whence both physician and sufferer should arm themselves with
patience, and not be discouraged by delay in realizing the effects of electricity.
Lecture V.—Animal electricity.—Principal facts of Galvani and Nobili.—Methods of ex-
erimenting in electro-physiology.—Precautions for destroying secondary polarity.—
ifferential method by the confrontation of electro-motive powers.—Muscular batteries. —
Fundamental facts of muscular eleciricity.—Entire muscles.—Divided muscles. —Laws
of Matteucci and Du Bois Reymond.—Propositions on muscular electricity —Muscular
electro-motor, independent of the thickness of the muscle and the integrity of the nerve,
proportional to the length of the muscle.—Relation of muscular irritability. —Distinction
between the voltaic pile and the muscular electro-motor.—Electric current of the nerves.—
Electro-tonic state and its explanation by the secondary electro-motive power.
We commence to-day the second part of this course—that is, the study of
electricity developed within the living organism. In this investigation it will
be shown that there are in nature certain animals provided with a particular
organ by which electricity is constantly developed. We shall further see that
in all animals there are certain tissues which are true electro-motors, and that
the electricity. developed in these stands in relation to the proper functions of
those tissues. But, before proceeding with this subject, I should explain and
describe the apparatus and the methods which are requisite to guide us to exact
results in a field once so intricate and obscure. It is by virtue of these methods
and apparatus that this part of electro-physiology forms at present a depart-
ment of general physics, founded on exact experiments reproduced with fa-
cility, and in which our acquisitions are every day extended and verified.
Such as it exists to-day, this part of electro-physiology has derived its impul-
sion from two capital experiments which were made at two epochs very distant
from one another, and which remained without development till 1840. The
first of these experiments had its origin in the well-known discussion between
Galvani and Volta, towards the close of the last century. Galvani, after having
discovered that the prepared frog furnished a very delicate instrument for indi-
eating by strong muscular contractions the passage of electricity, inferred from his
experiments that electricity was developed within the animal, and that the nerves
and muscles of a frog thus prepared were as the two armatures of a charged jar,
discharged through the metallic ares between which those animal parts-were
placed and in contact with them. Volta, after having invented the pile and
320 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
conceived the hypothesis of the electro-motive force, rejected the idea of Galvani
respecting animal electricity, and concluded that in all the experiments made
upon frogs the electricity was developed by the external ares, because they were
heterogeneous, and that the animal did nothing but discharge it.
Galvani opposed to these conclusions an experiment which I have termed
capital, because it was, in reality, the point of departure of electro-physiology ;
that is, a true phenomenon of electricity developed by the living organism. The
experiment is this: The frog being prepared in the usual manner, a leg of the
same is bent so as to bring it into contact with the lumbar nerves. At that
instant the frog undergoes contraction, and this effect is repeated as long as the
frog is excitable, and each time that the contact is renewed. If the muscles
and the nerves continue to be kept in contact for a certain time, the contraction
often occurs even at the moment in which the contact is interrupted.
Galvani demonstrated, as far as was then possible, by many sagacious and
well-conducted experiments, which were subsequently varied and extended, by
Humboldt and Aldini particularly, to other animals, that if the contact between
muscles and nerves was effected by means of interposed bodies, contraction
manifested itself only when those bodies were conductors of electricity, and that
it no longer occurred if isolating bodies were employed. ‘Thus contraction re-
sults at the opening as well as closing of the circuit, if, the galvanoscopie frog
being held on an isolating surface, the extremities of the leg and of the nerve
touch a stratum of water or any homogeneous and conducting surface. Hum-
boldt used to place a portion of muscle between the nerve and the leg of the
galvanoscopic frog, and in this manner also contractions were excited. Aldini
observed the same fact discovered by Galvani in reference to the frog, by rap-
idly preparing in birds and rabbits the leg united with the sciatic nerve, and
folding that nerve on the muscles. Aldini further varied this experiment by
taking with the fingers the leg of a galvanoscopic frog, and bringing the nerve
into contact with the brain or the muscles of other living animals. As is
readily perceived, in thus operating he did but repeat the former experiments
of Galvani and Humboldt, with the difference that the are between the muscles
and the nerves of the galvanoscopic frog was formed by the hand and by the
body of the observer, by the earth and by the animals touched with the nerve;
wherefore the contraction obtained in this manner could not be taken for a sign
of electricity in the animals touched. It was for this reason that I said, in one
of the preceding lectures, that it was proper, in using the galvanoscopie frog, to
support it with an isolating handle, and to touch the electro-motor which we
wish to study at two points of the single nervous fibre of the frog
All these various forms of the leading experiment of Galvani left no doubt in
regard to the inference of the existence of a proper electricity of the muscles and
nerves in a state of life, nor was this demonstration in any manner contradicted
by the observation of Volta, viz: that the nerves and muscles represented the
two metals of the pair of plates, since it always proved that the nerves and
muscles act not as electro-motors, if not taken in an animal living or recentiy
killed.
In 1827, about fifty years after Galvani, Nobili, who had then improved the
galvanometer and rendered it very sensitive, made, with the frog prepared in
the manner of Galvani, the second capital experiment to which I have alluded.
Let us suppose we have the galvanometer with a long wire, and on the astatic
system devised by Nobili, the extremities of which are laminz of platina im-
mersed in two goblets filled with salt water. Before commencing the experi-
ment on the frog, Nobili takes a wick of cotton well steeped with the liquid and
unites with this wick the liquor of the two goblets. If the two laminz of pla-
tina are homogeneous, a thing very difficult to realize, the needle remains un-
moved; usually, however, there is deviation which results from the imperfect
homogeneity of the laminz, and especially from their having the secondary po-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. Fe Peg)
*
larity. The cireuit being left closed, the deviation after some time amounts to
nothing, or very little. A frog is then rapidly prepared, the wick is removed,
and the frog is substituted by immersing the lumbar nerves in one vessel and
the legs in the other. At that instant the frog contracts, and the needle devi-
ates by an are of twenty-five or thirty or more degrees, and settles at a much
less angle, which eontinues eventually to decrease. If the experiment is re-
peated on another frog, inverting at the same time its position with respect to
the extremities of the galvanometer, the deviat:.on occurs in the opposite direc-
tion. Nobili also ascertained, by operating upon two or three frogs similarly
prepared and united in form of a battery—that is, by placing in contact the
muscles of one with the nerves of another, that the deviation of the needle in-
creased in proportion to the number of the frogs. It results from these experi-
ments that, by uniting through a homogeneous are the nerves and muscles of a
prepared frog, there is established in this are a direct electrical current, so that
the muscles represent the zine, and the nerves the carbon or platina of a voltaic
pair, by which the current is directed in the animal from the muscles to the
nerves, or from the feet to the head of the frog, as it is customary to say. “This
current was, according to all analogy, the cause of the contraction observed in
the experiment of Galvani.
Nobili did not sufliciently vary his experiments to be enabled to arrive at an
exact interpretation of the fact which he had discovered, and, led by a false
analogy, he overlooked the true origin of the electricity of which, however, he
had rigorously demonstrated the existence in animals. He imagined that the
nerves and the muscles, by their different structure and composition, were bodies
which parted unequally with the water by evaporation, whence they must have,
as he reasoned, since they are exposed to the air, a different temperature, from
which he inferred that the current discovered in the frog was a thermo-electric
current between the nerve and muscle, and, therefore, independent of the living
organism. A slight consideration, however, of the conditions under which his
experiment was made, will satisfy us how dissimilar and even opposite they are’
to the conditions in which thermo-electric currents are produced ; and, more-
over, we shall presently see that the true electro-motor ia the experiments of
Nobili, as in those of Galvani, (which do not differ except through the addition
of the circuit of the galvanometer and the electricity of the frog being proved
not only by the contraction, but also by the deviation of the magnetized needle,)
is not formed by the union of the nerves and muscles, but by the various parts
of the muscle alone.
I shall endeavor to show the laws of the muscular electro-motor by simple
and exact experiments, and must, therefore, premise a description of the instru-
ments and methods used in these experiments.
You are already acquainted with the preparation of the galvanoscopic frog
and its use. The leg of a frog rapidly prepared, and with which a long nervous
filament remains united, is placed upon a slip of gutta-percha; the nerve is to be
slightly dried by placing it upon a sheet of felt paper, and then the piece of
muscle of which we would ascertain the electrical state is touched with two
points of this nerve. By repeating this experiment several times, changing the
points at which the muscle is touched by the nerve, and observing the instant
at which the contraction occurs, we nay determine with some certainty the di-
rection of the current. In such an experiment we may also use the whole frog
divided in half, after the manner described in former lectures, and with this, if
the current is sufficiently intense, it is still more easy to discover the direction
of the current, because commonly one of the members, that, namely, which is
traversed by the direct current, contracts when the circuit is closed, and the
other at the opening.
Lhe galvanometer of very fine and long wire, with a good magnetic system,
is the essential instrument for the researches of electro-physiology. Since it is
21s
Pa
322 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
practicable to unite several muscular elements in series, forming of them one
battery, a galvanometer of two or three thousand coils may suffice, though in
more delicate experiments, such as those made on a single muscle and those
pertaining to the variation of the muscular electro-motor power under contrae-
tion, and the electro-motor power of the nerves, it will be necessary to have
recourse to a galvanometer of from twenty to thirty thousand coils.
In every experiment of animal electricity with the galvanometer there are
encountered even to this day causes of error, introduced by the lamine or strips
with which the extremities of the galvanometer terminate. In effect the im-
provement of this instrument by Nobili led immediately to the multiplication of
experiments in electro-physiology, but from want of proper attention to the errors
introduced by the use of the lamine just spoken of, the recurrence of erroneous
results arrested the progress of this part of physics. 'The more delicate the
galvanometer, so much the more necessary was it to resort to a method which
should be guarded against the influence of the extraneous currents attributable
to the extremities of the galvanometer and the chemical action of the liquids
placed in contact with those extremities. It is not necessary that I should here
speak of the experiments of electro-physiology made by using, as extremities of ©
the galvanometer, lamin of iron, silver, or copper, placed directly in contact
with the muscles, the brain, or the spinal marrow of a living animal. Perhaps
in some of these experiments the effects obtained by the galvanometer should be
attributed to the electro-motor power of those parts, but most frequently the un-
certainty of the direction and the variable intensity of the currents obtained
under equal circumstances depend either on the secondary polarity or the hete-
rogeneity of the lamine, or on the different action of the animal liquids in contact
with them. 'These uncertainties and irregularities are not to be effectually ex-
eluded, except when with the muscular batteries we have increased the intensity
of the currents, or, better still, when we shall have succeeded in entirely elimi-
nating the secondary polarity of the lamine of the galvanometer.
It is easy to understand the method of the muscular batteries. For the present
the muscular element which we are considering is the frog prepared after the
method of Galvani, and used in the experiments of Nobili. We will suppose
that we have a certain number of these frogs possessing about the same degree
of vivacity and similarly prepared. We stretch them on an isolating surface,
arranging them in battery—that is, placing the legs of one frog in contact with
the legs of the succeeding frog. The extremities of the galvanometer used at
first were two equal laminze of platina soldered to copper wires; each of which
lamine has an isolating handle of ivory or gutta-percha, and is covered with a
coating of sealing-wax, leaving exposed only a small and equally extended por-
tion of their surfaces. The two lamine must have been first cleansed with
potassa, then plunged in a diluted acid, then several times in distilled water, and
finally left immersed for a considerable time in this liquid, or in a solution of
marine salt. In this way we succeed in rendering the laminz homogeneous, and
in divesting them of currents ; if agitated too much, or unequally immersed in
the liquid, currents again make their appearance.
The frogs being arranged, as already shown, in battery, their two extremi-
ties—that is, the nerves on the one hand and the legs on the other, are immersed
in little cavities filled with distilled or salted water. Having succeeded in ob-
taining homogeneity in the platina lamine of the galvanometer, we close the
circuit of the muscular battery by immersing them in the extreme cavities of
this battery. We have thus a current which, by employing eight or ten elements
and a galvanometer of but two thousand coils, is sutliciently strong to make the
needle deviate a full quadrant. It may be thus demonstrated that the deviation
increases with the number of the elements, and that the direction of the current
obtained by this battery is independent of the nature of the liquid in which are
plunged the extremities of the battery, These results have, for the first time,
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 323
placed beyond doubt, that the currents thus obtained do not depend on the
heterogeneity of the lamin of the galvanometer, or on the action of the animal
liquids on those lamine; in a word, the experiments with muscular batteries
have furnished the most-indubitable proof of the existence of the proper elec-
tricity of the muscles of animals living or recently killed.
Du-Bois Reymond, to whom we owe so many important experiments in electro-
physiology, was the first to construct and to use a galvanometer of very fine and
long wire which makes at least twenty thousand coils around the needles. He
was thus enabled to study muscular electricity without resorting to batteries—
that is, by operating on a single piece of muscle. The extremities of the galva-
nometer used by him were two lamine of platina immersed in salted water.
This liquid is contained in two small cups of glass, in each of which a consid-
erable stratum of flannel or paper passes from and beyond the cup, and is bent
horizontally to a short distance. ‘These two appendages of paper or flannel,
called cushions, (cuscinetti,) being imbibed with the liquid of the cups, serve to
close the circuit when they are brought into contact, which is effected by their
directly touching one another, or, still better, by placing upon them a third
similarly imbibed with the same liquid. After it is ascertained that there is no
current between the laminz, the third cushion is removed and the prepared frog
is substituted, which is done by placing it with the nerves on the cushion of one
cup and the legs on the cushion of the other. ‘We shall then see a very strong
deviation in the needle, referrible to the usual current, which Nobili termed the
current of the frog, directed in the animal from the feet towards the head.
Whichever of these methods of operating be selected, namely, the battery of
muscles with the less delicate galvanometer, or a single muscle with the highly
sensitive galvanometer, it will still be observed that the use of the lamin
of platina renders the experiment imperfect and sometimes erroneous. It will
be found, in effect, especially in using a single frog and very sensitive galva-_
nometer, that while the first deviation of impulsion is very great, the needle, after
oscillating for a brief period, establishes the ultimate amount of deviation at a
few degrees, and even then exhibits instability, promptly descending towards
zero. We may, therefore, easily satisfy ourselves that these effects do not de-
pend on the feebleness of the electricity of the frog, but on a physical phenomenon
with which we are already acquainted—that is, on the development of secondary
polarity in the lamine of platina, by which there is created an electro-motive
force contrary to that of the frog. In effect if we remove the frog and close the
circuit by bringing the cushions into direct contact with one another, we imme-
diately observe a deviation in a direction opposite to that of the frog. ‘This
secondary polarity, then, is an imperfection in these experiments, both because
it rapidly weakens the animal currents, and* because it creates heterogenity in
the lamine—effects which are not easily removed, and which may introduce
errors into succeeding experiments. Fortunately we possess at present a method °
in which these imperfections are avoided. I have already shown how, in causing
a current to pass by two electrodes of platina into a saline solution, these elec-
trodes, when the current of the battery ceases, give to the galvanometer a strong
secondary current in the opposite direction; I also remarked that this latter
current was due to the products of electrization which collected on the electrodes
of platina, and to their chemical action on recombining within the liquid.
Observe now the experiment by which it is proved that a current may be trans-
mitted in a liquid by means of metallie electrodes without generating secondary
polarity. Instead of electrodes of platina I employ strips of zine perfectly
amalgamated and covered with mercury, immersed in a saturated solution of
sulphate of neutral zinc. By presenting the experiment we easily obtain an
explanation of the result. I cause the usual current to pass, and then close the
circuit between these strips or laminz alone; there is now no trace of a current.
The sulphate of zinc is decomposed—that is, the oxygen and sulphuric acid go
324 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
to the positive wire and form sulphate of zinc, which is immediately set free in
the liquid, and keeps it saturated as at first; at the negative pole zinc is pre-
cipitated, which, finding an excess of mercury, becomes amalgamated, and leaves
the wire in nearly the same state as before. There is, therefore, no alteration
produced by the passage of the current either in the liquid or the electrodes, and
this explains the absence of the secondary polarity.
Henee the practice is now generally adopted, in all electro-physiological ex-
periments made with the galvanometer, of having two strips of amalgamated
zine, soldered to the extremities of the copper wire and immersed ina saturated
solution of sulphate of neutral zine which fills the two cups furnished with the
cushions above described. I have recently introduced a useful modification,
as follows: instead of strips of zinc I use an amalgam of zine which half fills a
glass tube bent in the shape of U, but of very different diameter in the two
branches. Into the narrow tube filled with the amalgam I introduce the copper
wires of the galvanometer; on the amalgam which is in the wider branch I pour
a saturated solution of sulphate of zine, so as to fill this branch almost entirely ;
each of these branches has a wide rostrum or beak, flattened like a duck’s bill,
in which the liquid spreads itself in a thin stratum and fulfils the office of the
cushions. With this modification the metallic appendages continued to be
homogeneous without renewing the amalgamation, and we avoid the soiling of
the cushion with the liquids which moisten the pieces of muscle, an inconvenience
which obliges us to wash frequently the actual cushions in the solution of the
sulphate. An experiment will evince that by these means we avoid the secondary
polarity. I place any small body, a piece of glass for instance, against the needle
of the galvanometer to prevent any deviation occasioned by the current of a frog
or battery of frogs. ‘This obstacle does not hinder the needle from deviating in
the opposite direction—in that, namely, in which it would be made to deviate by
the secondary polarity on closing the cireuit between the two cups alone, imme-
diately after the removal of the frogs. I cause, in effect, the current of a battery
of six or eight frogs to pass and notice what occurs, on seeing the needle ap-
proach and press against the obstacle. After some seconds I remove the muscu-
lar battery and immediately afterwards bring the cups into contact, and I obtain
no sign of deviation. I conclude, then, from this experiment that the method I
adopt renders these experiments of electro-physiology independent of the sec-
ondary polarity. Moreover, I propose to show that by causing the current of a
frog to pass with these electrodes of zine, the needle is promptly fixed, and
indicates a deviation much greater than that which would be obtained by using
electrodes of platina in water either distilled or slightly saline.
In terminating this exposition of the experimental method, I will state finally,
that, for a comparison of the electro-motor power of two pieces of muscle or
other animal tissue, I have always used with invariable success the principle of
opposition which I have already brought to your notice. For this purpose the
two electro-motors are placed on the customary surface of gutta-percha in com-
mnunication with one another and in such a way that their currents are in an
opposite direction to one another. On now touching the extremities of this
double battery with the two cushions of the galvanometer, we shall have, if
there be a difference of electro-motor power, a differential current in the direction
of the stronger electro-motor, which will be independent of the internal resist-
ance. Would we next measure in some manner the electro-motor power of the
different muscular elements, we use, as was first done by Giulio Regnault, an
electro-molive unit, which may be a thermo-electric pair, bismuth and copper,
in Which the union is maintained at a constant difference of temperature, being
the one at 0° and the other at 100°. The electro-motor power of a muscle or
other animal tissue may be expressed by the number of the electro-motive units
required in order that there shall be no differential current.
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 325
Having detained you so long in describing how exact experiments on the
muscular electro-motors are conducted, it will be more easy to explain with
brevity and distinctness the laws of these electro-motors.
Any muscle selected in an animal alive or recently killed, may be submitted
to experiment either by taking the animal entire and without alteration of the
organic integrity, or after haying had its fibres transversely divided. Let us
begin with the muscles entire ; and for these experiments the frog, whether from
its structure or its tenacity of life, is better suited than any other animal. Hence
it ison the muscles of the frog that we shall operate, regard being had, however,
to the muscles of other animals in demonstrating the fundamental facts of mus-
cular electricity. Whatever may be the entire muscle selected, it will be always
terminated at its extremities by the tendinous appendages, which anatomists con-
sider as a continuation of the same fibres and which therefore rest on the bases
of the muscular fibres. A muscular mass would hence be a fasciculus of cylin-
drical fibres on whose bases or tranverse sections the tendinous fibres are estab-
lished and form a continuation of them.
I will not stop to describe all the experiments which have been deemed
necessary suitably to analyze the fact discovered by Nobili, and to prove that
the animal electro-motor does not consist in the assemblage of muscles and of
nerves, as has been supposed, nor in the whole mass of muscles of the entire
animal, but that, on the other hand, each of the muscles is a distinct electro-
motor, whence, by putting an entire frog or other animal in a circuit, all these
muscles are made to act at once. The current which is obtained from the entire
frog depends, therefore, on the intensity and direction of the various currents
with which it is charged.
In order to make a simple experiment we detach from the entire frog a muscle
as entire and intact as possible, such as the gastrocnemius or rather some small
muscles of the upper members. With these muscles a battery is readily con-
structed by disposing them in series, and then, even with a galvanometer not
very delicate, we have the indications of a current which increases with the
number of the elements and which is directed like that of the entire frog. In
using a battery of gastrocnemian or other muscles it will be seen that the current
has always the same direction, either on directly touching with the laminze of
platina the extremities of the muscular battery or interposing wet layers of paper
or flannel imbibed with different liquids. If, instead of using gastrocnemians
alone, placed in contact with one another, we employ gastrocnemians to which
the nervous filament is united we equally obtain indication of the gastrocnemian
current, but they will be much more weak from the great resistance introduced
into the circuit by the nerve. By making the experiment with greater attention,
and especially by selecting muscles whose tendinous extremities are as equal
as possible, we shall succeed finally in ascertaining what is the most simple form
of the muscular electro-motor, and what the law of that electro-motor.
Suppose that we operate with the very delicate galvanometer, whose extre-
mities are those above described—that is, laminze of amalgamated zinc immersed
in the solution of the sulphate of zinc—and that we use the rostra described,
either with a simple beak or with cushions of flannel. We place the muscle,
which ought to be the great adduc'or muscle, because the experiment succeeds
better, upon gutta-percha, and bring it with its tendinous extremities into contact
with the cushions. It rarely occurs that there is no sign of a current, but it is
certain that this is much weaker than that which arises from touching first one
and then the other tendinous extremity with one of the cushions, and the sur-
face or median zone of the muscle with the other cushion. ‘The same result is
realized by touching two symmetrical points of the muscle equally distant from
the extremities. his fact is constant and general—that is to say, it is verified
in all entire muscles, whatever be the animal operated upon, so that the following
proposition may be considered as perfectly established by experiment: ‘“ What-
326 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
ever be the entire muscle operated upon, if this muscle is alive or belongs to an ,
animal recently killed, a current is obtained in a homogeneous are which touches
with its extremities one of the tendinous extremities of the muscle and the sur-
face of the muscle; this current is constantly directed in the external are from
the surface of the muscle to the tendon, and its intensity diminishes in proportion
as both the extremities of the are separate from one another by approaching the
extremities of the muscle.” This proposition, suitably applied, comprises all
the cases of currents obtained in entire muscles, and is confirmed by operating
on the muscles of frogs, insects, and animals of warm blood, but with difference
of intensity and lapse of time after death, depending upon laws which will be
considered in the sequel.
It has already been said that the current obtained by Nobili, in operating on
the entire frog, was in some sense the algebraic expression of all the currents of
the muscular fasciculi, which compose the animal, and which are included in the
circuit at the same time. It will suffice to form a double battery, by opposing a.
single gastrocnemian to an entire half of the frog, in order to obtain in the galva-
nometer a strong differential current in the direction of the single gastrocnemian.
1 will merely add that, with a battery formed of ten or twelve gastrocnemians, L
have been enabled to obtain a current so intense as to discharge the condenser
and to give indications of electro-chemical decomposition.
The current with which we have been till now oceupied, and which is found
in entire muscles, is evidently the cause of the contraction which occurs in the
experiment of Galvani on touching the muscles of the leg with the lumbar
nerves. ‘This current, proceeding trom the feet to the head in the frog, is
wnverse as regards the lumbar nerves—that is, in the direction in which we have
seen the contraction prevail at the opening of the circuit. We have observed,
on the other hand, in repeating the experiment of Galvani, that the contraction
is more frequently obtained when the nerves and muscles touch each other, and
not in the act by which that contact ceases. To explain this result, which
would seem contrary to the law which has been stated respecting the physio-
logical action of the current according to its direction, we must observe that in
making the experiment of Galvani it may not happen that the circuit is kept
closed for a certain time, while this condition is indispensable for obtaining the
contraction at the opening, when the nerve is traversed by the inverse current.
And, in fact, if the experiment of Galvani be repeated by prolonging the contact,
we then generally succeed in obtaining the contraction when the current ceases.
Professor Cima has pointed out a certain method of obtaining, with the current
of the frog, contraction at the opening of the circuit. He takes the galvano-
scopic frog, rests it on an isolating support, and then immerses in water at the
same time the fore paw and the end of the nervous fibre which hangs below;
then, by keeping the circuit closed each time for several seconds, we obtain the
contraction, first at the closing and opening of the circuit, and afterwards only
at the opening.
Let us pass now to the electric current obtained in muscles in which the
fibres are divided. The first experiment of this kind which seems to have
been tried is that which I now exhibit, and which is performed by using the
galvanoscopic frog rapidly prepared, and supported on an isolating handle of
gutta-percha. I take another frog, a living fish, bird, or any animal whatever,
and make an incision in a muscular mass; I then cause the nerve of the
galvanoscopic frog to touch with two different points the interior of the in-
cision and the surface of the muscle. In this way we never fail of obtain-
ing a contraction in the frog, and, by making the experiment with due care,
we may even succeed in determining in the usual manner the direction of the
current, that is, the position of the poles of the muscular electro-motor.
if the not very delicate galvanometer be used, the effects of the muscular
current obtained from divided muscles are augmented by forming the usual
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 327
batteries. The muscular elements, which are most readily supplied, are the half
thighs of frogs. With this view a certain number of frogs are prepared a la
Galvani, the legs of which are cut at the articulations; then, by dividing trans-
versely at the middle of the thigh, we obtain, especially with the inferior half,
a perfect element. Muscular elements with divided fibres are also procured by
removing the skin of an eel, and cutting it transversely into so many pieces ;
and in like manner from the legs of birds and mammifers stript of the skin.
The heart of a bird or fish eut in half likewise furnishes a muscular element,
and the same may be said of slices of the pectoral muscles. Whatever be the
muscular element thus obtained, it is readily understood how a muscular bat-
tery may be formed of a certain number of these elements: it suffices to arrange
all of them in the same direction, that is, by causing the interior or section of
an element to touch the surface of the succeeding element. Similar batteries
have been constructed even on the still living muscles; for this purpose the
frogs were fixed upon a table, their lower members denuded of skin, and a thigh
of each was cut in the middle. The battery was completed by establishing the
contact between the section created by cutting in one frog and the leg of the
succeeding frog. A similar experiment has been repeated with birds. Which-
ever of these batteries may be adopted, there occur at the galvanometer currents
which increase with the number of elements, and with which we may obtain
the discharge of the condenser and the signs of electro-chemical action on the
ioduret of potassa. Even with a single picce of divided muscle and the very
delicate galvanometer, we observe the indications of the same muscular current,
which is constantly directed in the muscle from the internal or transverse section
to the surface, and thence again to the transverse section in the circuit of the
galvanometer. 4
As, while studying the current in entire muscles, we saw it always become
weaker, and finally even null, when the tendinous extremities of the muscle, or
two symmetrical points of it nearest to those extremities, were touched; so it
will be seen even more generally that the muscular current is annulled.in a
muscle having two transverse sections equidistant from its middle, on applying
the extremities of the galvanometer at the centre of those sections. ‘he ex-
periment may be made by cutting transversely, at two points equidistant from its
middle, the thigh of a frog. By employing the delicate galvanometer, and
using for its extremities cushions reduced to a point, we are enabled to operate
on small pieces of muscular fibre, and to obtain in these that which is obtained
with a muscular battery. We are led from the above considerations to gene-
ralize the experiments cited, and to conclude that every element of muscular
fibre of an animal living or recently killed is an electro-motor.
Du-Bois ‘Reymond regards the electro-motor power of entire and of divided
muscles under a single point of view, and as having the same origin. In ac-
cordance with modern anatomical observations, it is now admitted that the ex-
tremities of the muscular fibres, the bases of those cylindrical fibres which
compose the muscles, are in immediate communication with the tendinous fibres.
For this reason the tendons may be considered in the muscular electro-motor as
a natural transverse section, Hence Du-Bois Reymond calls the interior or the
incision of a muscle the artificial transverse section, and the tendon the natural
transverse section. 'To complete this definition, the same physiologist calls the
surface of the muscle the natural longitudinal section, and maintains that we
ean also obtain, what is sufficiently difficult in practice, an artificial longitudinal
secon. ‘These definitions being premised, every muscular electro-motor is
embraced under this general formula: any point of the longitudinal section of
a muscle, whether natural or artificial, 1s positive with respect to every point of
the transverse section, natural or artificial.
Lt might be proper to proceed now to a consideration of the muscular electro-
motor in its analogy with the different electro-motors which we possess in
328 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
physics, and endeavor to throw some light on the mode of action of this electro-
motor. But first, and in-the interest indeed of this theoretical research, I must
state the laws of muscular electricity, that is, its relations with the physical and
physiological properties of the muscle.
‘The first proposition relative to the physical condition of the muscle is the
following: The electro-motor power of the muscle is independent of the size of
the muscle itself, or of the magnitude of its transverse section, and is, on the other
hand, proportional to the length of the muscle.
This proposition, as well as those which follow, is founded on experiments
very aptly performed upon the principle of opposition before mentioned. Thus,
for the first part of the proposition, it is sufficient to prepare a certain number
of half thighs of frogs, and to construct a double battery formed on one part of a
single half ‘thieh; sal on the other, of five or six elements, which are all superposed
in hore same daeeenon: From this double battery there is no differential current,
or one very slight, and iu the direction indifferently ofa single element or of the
combined elements. ‘The same result is verified by collating the muscular ele-
ments of very different size with one another, unless it be found that in this
case the differential current is almost always in the direction of the thicker
muscle, the reason of which will be presently shown.
We proceed in like manner to show that the muscular current is proportional
to the length of the muscle. A double and opposed battery formed of two half
thighs beimg prepared, after having ascertained the equality of these two ele-
ments, we execute with each of them a new transverse division parallel to the
first; with this difference, that in one of the elements the operation is restricted
to the removal of a very thin styatum, while in the other it should reduce the
element to not more than a third or fourth of the previous length. ‘The battery is
then reconstructed, and we have now a differential current in the direction of
the longer muscle. ‘This result has also been realized with the gastrocnemian
and the long dorsal muscles of the rabbit. Hence we derive an explanation of
the observation made by Du-Bois Reymond regarding the current obtained by
touching two non-symmetrical points of the same tranaverse section. ‘This current
indicates that the points of this section nearest to the centre act as the trans-
verse section, and stand in relation to points further from the centre as if these
last pertained to the surface of the muscle. ‘The fibres of the centre are, in effect,
longer than the fibres situated near the edge of the transverse section, and
the: resulting current is in conformity with the proposition above stated.
Let us pass now to the physiological laws of the muscular current, and here
also, for sake of brevity, I shall state such well-established facts as we possess
in the form of propositions,
First proposition—‘‘ The eleetro-motive force of the muscle in an animal
living or recently dead is greater in the mammifers and in birds than in fishes
and reptiles. ‘This foree 1 rapidly diminishes after death, but in an inverse order
as regards the animal series, and still with great differences. The muscular
electricity varies, therefore, as the so-called eal w irritability.”
As this irritability is extinguished very rapidly in mammifers and birds, par-
ticularly in a detached muscle of the animal,it is necessary to operate with
great promptness in order to demonstrate the first part of this proposition.
Having prepared, therefore, the half thigh of a frog, we rapidly detach a thigh
from a living bird, cut the thigh in half, remove the skin, and promptly form the
double battery with the opposed elements of the frog and the bird. In the
greater number of cases the differential current is in the direction of the bird.
If, after some moments, the battery be reconstructed, we shall see the differential
current arise in the opposite direction, that is,in favor of the muscle of the frog.
Giulio Regnault, in measuring with thermo-electric units the electro-motox
powers of the muscle of the rabbit and of the frog, found that, in the first mo-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 329
ments after death, the muscle of the rabbit predominated. I have myself made
these comparisons by operating upon living animals, and with results still more
decisive.
Second proposition — “The nerve does not directly exercise any influence
upon the electro-motor power of the muscle.”
We have before seen that by leaving to the muscular elements the nervous
filament, and introducing it into the circuit, we only produce a weakening of the
muscular current. When the opposite battery is formed by two muscular ele-
ments, one without the nerve and the other with the nerve placed in circuit,
since by this arrangement the internal resistance is excluded, there is no differ-
ential eurrent—a fact which indicates that the electro-motive force of the muscle
is independent of the presence of the nerve. We may also experiment on
pieces of muscle in which have been left, now the nerve which ramities therein,
and now the nerve which issues from it. In both these cases it will be found
that the nerve acts only as would a piece of wet thread, which is a bad con-
ductor, in contact with a certain part of the muscle. Under the above propo-
sition might be comprised the results obtained by a comparative study of healthy
muscles and those affected with narcotics. The general result, is that the elec-
tro-motor power of the muscles of these animals, if they died after having under-
gone contractions more or less violent and prolonged, is diminished. ‘The same
occurs in the muscles of animals killed with the poison of curare. We shall
see in the sequel, in speaking of the electrical phenomena of muscular contrac-
tion, how we have succeeded in interpreting the diminution of the electro
motor power of the muscles in which, by the action of the poison, contractions
have been excited.
Third proposition —“ All the physico-chemical actions which modify the
muscular irritability act also on the electro-motor power of the muscles.”
I shall content myself with adducing two or three precise experiments which,
in different cases, verify this proposition. We have here two vessels contain-
ing frogs; in one are some taken but a few hours from the fens where they
naturally live; in the other, some taken several weeks ago, and consequently much
enfeebled. Whether we operate on the gastrocnemians or on the half thighs,
there will constantly be realized, with the usual method of the double battery,
a differential current which will evince that the electro-motor power of the
muscles of the fresh frogs is greater than that of the muscles of the frogs which
J denote as enteebled. ‘The effect of the enfeeblement is always more manifest
in the gastrocnemian muscles than in the half thighs.
The influence of refrigeration on the muscles may be shown in a very distinct
manner. J prepare a certain number of gastrocnemian muscles taken from
different frogs, and introduce a portion of them into a glass tube, which I
immerse in a frigorific mixture of ice and salt. After two or three minutes I
form the usual double battery with a gastrocnemius which has not been in
the mixture, and with one which has undergone refrigeration. ‘There will
constantly be observed a great diminution in the electro-motor power as the
effect of the reduction of temperature. By prolonging the refrigeration for
fifteen or twenty minutes, the muscles lose this property entirely, while, if the
process of cooling has been of brief duration, they reacquire, on regaining the
ordinary temperature, a portion of the electro-motive force. An effect analo-
gous to that of a reduction of temperature is produced by its elevation. ‘The
fact may thus, atleast in part, be explained, why it is that frogs, as well in the
depth of winter as in the hottest weather, yield with their muscles much weaker
electric currents than in the intermediate seasons.
I have sought to ascertain whether muscles, entire or divided, left for a cer-
tain time in hydrogen, oxygen, or carbonic acid gas, or within the vacuum of
the air pump, underwent variations in their electro-motor power. I have
discerned no difference, for even the effect produced by operating with hydrogen
330 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
gas was found to result from the action of the gas on the secondary polarity
of the platina extremities of the galvanometer. It is possible that the action
of these gases on the nutrition and on the muscular respiration may eventually
have a certain influence on the electro-motor power of the muscles; but this
effect will be slow in manifesting itself. The action of nitrous gas and of sul-
phuretted hydrogen is, on the other hand, distinct. On causing frogs and even
animals of warm blood to die by inhaling these gases, it is found that the elee-
tro-motor power of their muscles is enfeebled. ‘The same may be said of frogs
which have died after many hours, confinement in water boiled and deprived
of air.
It has finally been inquired what effect ensued from the immersion of mus-
eles in different liquids upon their muscular electro-motive power. The first
effect realized from such immersion, if very brief, in saline water and ina
solution of sulphate of soda or of magnesia, is the augmentation of the power
in question. On using in effect the differential method, and comparing a muscle
which has not been, with another which has been, immersed in these liquids, if
a differential current has been observed, as is in fact often the case, this current
has been in the direction of the muscles which had undergone immersion. It is
impossible to explain this effect solely by the increase of conductibility due to
the liquids ; we are obliged to recur to the augmented electro-motive force. It
is to be noticed also that these liquids maintain the red color of the globules of
the blood, and must therefore increase the chemical action of nutrition, From
prolonging for a greater time the immersion of a muscle in any liquid, the con-
stant and general eflect is the weakening, and finally the disappearance of the
electro-motive power much sooner than would be the case if the muscles were
left in air.
After having stated the laws of muscular electricity, it would remain to pro-
pound the theory of this animal electro-motor. What is its form? What its
manner of acting? With which of the electro-motors known in physics has the
living muscle an analogy? We are forced to confess that, notwithstanding the
many investigations which have been devoted to muscular electricity, we are
yet unable to give any satisfactory reply to these questions We know that a
piece of muscular elementary fibre, however small, if taken from an animal
living or recently dead, is an electro-motor, of which the current has a deter-
minate direction in the muscular fibre under examination. We know that this
electro-motor power increases with the length of the fibre, and with the number
of the muscular elements organically combined. We know, finally, that this
same power varies with the muscular irritability. We are thus led to conclude
that the electro-motive power of the muscles has its origin in the chemical actions
of the muscular respiration. But all this conveys no information respecting the
form of the muscular electro-motor, nor whether the currents which we detect
with the galvanometer are derived currents—that is, whether the muscular
electro-motors being always in action, their currents are discharged through the
liquids or the tissues which envelop the muscle. Certain it is that the currents
obtained in the frog which still retains the skin are weaker than those which
occur at the same points in the same frog when the skin is removed, and this is
also the case on covering a muscle with any liquid stratum whatever.
We should not forget that there is in the muscular electro-motor a funda-
mental character which distinguishes it from the common electro-motors. ‘The
extremities of an entire muscle have the same electrical state, as two artificial
transverse sections also have the same state, which can never be the case either
in a battery, an electro-dynamic spiral, or in a Leyden jar. We cannot, in the
actual state of the science, form any precise idea of this difference, nor is it more
easy to understand why the half thigh, which is a muscle terminated by two
transverse sections, one natural and the other artificial, which should have, it
would seem, the same electrical state, is, notwithstanding, a powerful electro-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. a3
motor. Nor do we better understand why, with the enfeeblement of the vital
force, the half thigh loses so much more than the gastrocnemian. I repeat, that
as long as the form of the electro-motor is not known to us we shall not succeed
in clearing up these peculiarities which have at present the appearance o
anomalies, ,
Du Bois Reymond has imagined a scheme or figure for the electro-motor
element, comparing it to a cylinder of zinc whose bases are of copper. A series
of these cylinders immersed in an acid liquid would produce, by dipping the
extremities of the galvanometer in different points of the liquid, direct currents
such as are obtained from different points of the muscle; but this analogy is
wholly imaginary. ‘he explanation of muscular electricity proposed some
years since by Liebig, who surmised that there were in the muscles acid liquids
and alkaline liquids which react, has not borne the test of experiment.
I will not conclude this lecture without very briefly noticing the results
obtained in seeking whether other organic tissues have the electric properties of
the muscles. By introducing the platina extremities of a good galvanometer
into the fruit, leaves, or stalk of a plant, electric currents are obtained. Admitting
that these currents are constant and independent of the polarity and heterogeneity
of those extremities, the most probable explanation of the currents in question
points at present to liquids of a different chemical nature which, with great pro-
bability, exist in the various parts of the plant and which react on one another.
Investigations of this kind have been directed to the tendons, the tissues of the
lungs and liver and kidneys, of animals living or recently killed, and careful
experiment has shown that these tissues have no proper electro-motor power.
This power, however, exists in the nerves, and since it is much weaker there
than in the muscles, (perhaps about one-eighth or one-tenth,) Du Bois Reymond,
who discovered it, was obliged, in order to succeed, to employ an extremely
delicate galvanometer. The direction of the electric current in the nerves is tho
same as in the muscles, and is therefore obtained by establishing a homogeneous
are between the artificial transverse section of the nerve and its surface. A
current in the galvanometer is thus obtained, directed in the nerve from the
section to the surface.
In studying the electro-motor power of the nerves Du Bois Reymond has
made an experiment which I must by no means omit. In a fowl or rabbit he
takes a long nervous filament, such as a portion of the sciatic about eighty
millimetres long. ‘This nerve is placed on the two cushions of the galvanometer
in,such manner that a long piece of the nerve shall remain hanging down beyond
one or both cushions. As the two cushions of the galvanometer touch two
points of the surface of the nerve, there cannot be, and, in fact, there is:-no current.
This being done, let the two electrodes of any battery be applied to the part of
the nerve which hangs beyond the cushion, and in this part let a continuous
current be made to pass. ‘There now occurs a strong deviation in the galvano-
meter, which indicates that a constant current is circulating therein, a current
which is directed in the interval of the nerve between the two cushions of the
galvanometer, like the external current of the battery. If the nerve were still
longer, so as to have a piece pendent beyond the other cushion, and if in this
pendulous part the same current were made to pass, we should still obtain with
the galvanometer the current always directed in the nerve like the current of
the battery. Du Bois Reymond has given the name of e/ectro-tonic to that
state of the nerve into which the whole nerve is thrown by a current which
traverses it, even in portions which are not permeated by the current. It is
this supposed electro-tonie state of the nerve which occasions the electric current
I have described, or, to speak more correctly, the electro-tonic state has been
imagined in order to deduce from it the existence of that current.
i have latterly studied these phenomena with attention, and having found
that they are produced more readily and endure much longer in the large nerves
gan ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
of mammifers than in those of reptiles, that they are equally obtained in nerves
which have for several hours lost their excitability as in those just detached from
the living animal, I have had no hesitation in concluding that the electro-tonie
State is an effect independent of the electro-motor power, and in general of the
life of the nerve. I spoke at length, in one of the former lectures, of the
secondary electro-motor power discovered in the nerves; a phenomenon which,
as I stated, the nerve presents in common with all porous solid bodies im-
bibed with a conducting liquid, and which is owing to the electric currents
excited between the products of electrization deposited on the nerve in contact
with the electrodes of the battery. I showed that in the spaces of a nerve
beyond the electrodes—that is, in the portions which we will call neutral, from
their not having been traversed by the current, there are generated nevertheless
currents directed exactly as is the current of the battery between the electrodes.
The cause of these secondary currents is also known. In contact with the
positive electrode acids are separated, oxides in contact with the negative. Now,
as between water and an acid liquid a current is produced, directed in the liquid
from the water to the acid, as likewise a current is produced between water and
.an alkaline liquid directed in the liquid from the alkaline liquid to the water,
there is little diticulty in understanding how, in the portions of the nerve
beyond the electrodes, being those in which the electro-tonic state is developed,
secondary currents should be generated directed exactly as those which charac-
terize that state—that is, as the current of the battery. I will further recall
that these secondary currents are generated after an instantaneous passage of
the battery, whence there is no wonder if, with a very delicate galvanometer,
the effects of the electro-tonic state should be manifested when the current barely
begins to pass.
I will mention in conclusion that there is in the frog, as if that animal were
destined by nature to a revelation of all the secrets of animal electricity, another
tissue endowed with strong electro-motor power, namely, the skin. Let us take
the skin of a frog, and, after cutting a long strip, form of this a roll or cylinder,
and let us cut this roll transversely at its two extremities; if the cushions of the.
galvanometer be now brought into contact, one with the transverse section, the
other with the natural surface of the skin, we shall obtain, as Budge has observed,
a current directed in the galvanometer from the transverse section to the surface
of the skin. It is scarcely probable, however, that this current is really a fact
of animal electricity, and even its direction, in some sort contrary to that of
the muscular current, strengthens this suspicion. Perhaps to this electro-motor
power of the skin, whatever it may be, is due the opinion once entertained, that
the contraction obtained by Galvani in folding the leg on the nerve succeeded
better with the leg covered with skin that when denuded of it.
LeEcTuRE VI.—Electrical fishes.—Gencral phenomena of the discharge of electrical fishes.—
Chemical action.—Spark.—Deviation of the needle of the galvanometer.—Direction of the
discharge in various’ fishes.—-Structure and chemical composition of the organ.—Fourth
or electrical lobe.—Elementary electro-motor organ and laws of the electrical function.—
Organ an electro-motor constantly charged.—Electrical phenomena of muscular contrae-
tion.—Inductive contraction.—Proofs that it is owing to a current or electric discharge
which arises in the act of contraction. —Experiments which prove that the contraction con-
sumes the electro-motor power of the muscles. —Comparison between the muscular electro-
motor and the electric organ.
Arrived at the last lecture of this course, it gives me pleasure to be able to
illustrate in a living torpedo one of the most singular and most instructive cases
pertaining to the subject under consideration.
The fishes endowed with the electrical function are, according to the natural-
ists, five or six in number; but as it is our present object merely to give, as
far as possible, a theory of the electrical function, we shall confine ourselves to
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. gon
the electrical species best known, and which have been the subject of extensive
researches. These are the silurus of the Nile, the gymnotus of South America,
and the torpedo, which is frequently met with in the ocean and in our own seas.
From the times of Aristotle and Pliny notice has been taken of the property
possessed by the living torpedo of communicating a shock to those by whom it
is touched, and thus benumbing the member which comes into contact with it ;
hence the names of torpedo, tremolo, mago, given to these fish in different coun-
tries. Our cwn Redi was the first to discover that what he called the stwpefy-
ing or dolorific property of the torpedo has its seat in two special organs to
which he gave the name of falcated organsy and which are now termed electric
organs. In the torpedo, stripped of its skim, we find that on each side of the
head there exist two flattened elliptical masses which are connected with the
animal by integuments and ligaments, and by some large nerves which are rami-
fied in the eleetric organ. After Redi the most complete study of the electric
function of the torpedo and gymnotus is due to Walsh, who, in 1773, published
in the Philosophical Transactions a series of experiments which, as far as was
then practicable, demonstrated, through the employment of arcs now isolating
and now conducting, that these fish owe the property in question to an organ
which suddenly develops a great quantity of electricity, and that the two op-°
posite faces of this organ are the two poles, the two extremities of this animal
battery.
These notices being premised, I shall describe the electrical properties of the
torpedo with the simplicity and in the order with which we should study any
physical apparatus. ‘To receive the electric shock of the fish it is necessary, if
the animal is in water, to touch, or rather press, with the hands the electric
organs. If it be the torpedo, one hand is applied on the back and the other on
the belly ; if the gymnotus, it is necessary to grasp with one hand the head,
and with the other the tail. While these fishes are yet vivacious, having been
just caught, the shocks are very strong, and out of the water even stronger than
in it, because, as is readily understood, while the animal is still immersed a
great part of the electricity passes into the liquid and not into the body of the
experimenter. When just removed from their element, these fishes, perhaps
through irritation or uneasiness, give rapidly a succession of shocks which, when
the animal is vigorous, do not differ from those of a good electro-magnetic ma-
chine. Out of the water, however, the fish soon becomes wearied, and yields
weaker and more intermittent shocks; naturally, because it is enfeebled, but in
part, perhaps, because of an instinet which warns it that in the air the shocks
may be partially expended on itself. It often occurs that, in irritating a tor-
pedo out of water with ares formed of isolating material, the animal gives no
shocks, or but few, which is not the case when conducting arcs are used. The
electrical function of these fishes is for them, evidently, a weapon of offence or
defence ; if irritated, especially in the neighborhood of the organs, they give a
shock, as they do also in order to benumb the small fishes which serve them for
food. The well-known description which Humboldt gives us of the fishery of
the gymnotus in the lakes of Brazil, proves the vigor with which these fishes
exert their electric faculty in combating their enemies. ‘he natives use horses
in this pursuit, which, being driven into the lakes, often fall victims to the elec-
tric discharges of the gymnoti. In the mean time many of the latter, ex-
hausted in the contest, approach the shore half alive, and are drawn out with
hooks.
When the gymnotus avails itself of the electric organ to kill the fishes it
would devour, it goes to work like a physicists as the poles of its organ are at
the extremities of its body, it bends itself into a bow and seeks to bring those
extremities into the closest proximity with the victim. The torpedo, being flat-
tened in form and having the poles of its organ in contact with the belly and
spine, cannot use this artifice; but it employs another: lying generally in the
334 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
sand and covered with a thin stratum of it, when the small fishes pass over it
unawares it launches its discharge upon them.
In order to study the discharge of the torpedo, and observe those points of its
body in which the electric organ resides, it must be withdrawn from the water
and wiped dry ; prepared frogs should then be distributed on its surface. We
shall see the frogs, especially if the fish be irritated, fall into contractions ; and
if the torpedo be allowed to weary itself, we shall observe that the contractions
continue to retreat towards those parts of the body which correspond to the
electric organs. As long as it continues alive it responds, if sharply irritated
in any part of its body, with an electric discharge, and an experiment may be
made to show that the electric function is put in play at the will of the animal.
In effect, when the torpedo is irritated at any point of the tail or spine the dis-
charge occurs, provided the point irritated and the brain are connected by means
of the nerves of the spinal medulla. But if this medulla be divided, it will be
seen that the discharge is no longer provoked by irritation applied below the
point of division, though it still results from irritation above it.
The early observer, Walsh, and also Gay Lussac, thought that the shock
might be elicited without forming an are, that is, without touching at the same
time the belly and back of the torpedo. If the fish be not well isolated from
the ground, it is conceded that the shock will be experienced on touching one
face only of its body, because the arc is in that case established by the ground
and the entire person of the observer; and hence, when fishermen perceive that
there are torpedoes among the fishes drawn in nets from the water, they are ac-
customed to throw buckets of water on them, in order thus to exhaust the shock.
It is easy, however, to show by decisive experiment the necessity of forming
the are if we would have the shock. Let a living torpedo be wiped dry and
placed upon a tablet well isolated, with feet of gutta-percha. After several
galvanoscopic frogs have been spread over its body, let the organ be touched
with the end of the nerve of a galvanoscopic frog supported by the usual isola-
ting handle. At every discharge, whether spontaneous or provoked, given by the
torpedo, all the frogs undergo contraction except that supported on the isolating
handle. It is unnecessary to add, that if the tablet on which the torpedo is
placed were perfectly isolated, a condition difficult to realize, it would not be
necessary to support the galvanoscopic frog with such a handle. But it must
be further observed that even the isolated galvanoscopic frog will contract when
the torpedo gives the shock, if a portion of the nerve sufiiciently long be
stretched upon the organ. We shall presently see the explanation of this fact.
After what has been said, there will be no difficulty in comprehending how
all the effects of the instantaneous electric discharge should be obtained from
that of the torpedo, namely, the spark, the deviation of the galvanometer, the
magnetization, the heating of the platina wire, the chemical effects. All these
phenomena, which I made the subject of attentive study in 1837, were at that
time an occasion of surprise; for it could not but be deemed strange that
electrical effects so distinct should be realized from a fish, and these discoveries
offered, moreover, a new field for the study of animal electricity. Nor should I
omit to mention, as something surprising in its way, that only a few years
earlier experimenters of much ability, and even so ‘llustrious a cultivator of
our science as Sir Humphrey Davy, had published that the discharge of the
torpedo did not produce a deviation in the needle of the galvanometer. In
order to obtain with facility the electrical effects in question, I use a single and
very simple apparatus, which consists of two circular plates of copper, of which
the lower has three feet of gutta-percha, that it may be isolated from the ground,
and the upper one is provided with an isolating handle. To each of these
plates is soldered or screwed a long copper wire. I take a living torpedo, dry
it properly, place it on the lower plate, and cover it with the upper one. It is
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 335
sufficient to press the fish lightly with the upper plate in order to have the dis-
charge, and thence to obtain the electric effects in the circuit of the copper wire.
If it is proposed to produce the heating of the platina wire, I take a piece as
fine as possible, and form of it a small spiral; with this I connect the two ex-
tremities of the copper wire united to the plates. On provoking the torpedo to
give several discharges in succession, the platina wire will be found to have be-
come perceptibly heated. Magnetization is obtained by closing the circuit with
the usual small spiral of copper wire, in which is placed a needle of steel; after
the discharge the needle is found to be magnetized, and the position of the poles
indicates the direction of the discharge. ‘To obtain the indications of electro-
chemical action, we unite to the extremity of each of the copper wires two
pieces of platina wire, and these are placed with their extremities on paper pre-
pared with a mixture of starch and ioduret of potassa. Each time that the
torpedo gives the discharge there is a blue spot formed under the extremity of
the platina wire which is united to the plate resting in contact with the back of
the animal.
It is rather more difficult to obtain the spark of the discharge, and the reason
is clear, because it is necessary that at the moment the animal yields the dis-
charge there should be between the extremities of the circuit not a perfect com-
munication, but a slight interval of air, in which the spark is transmitted.
Among different means which I have devised for the purpose, that which sue-
ceeds best is to connect one of the usual copper wires with a large iron file, and
while the fish is lightly pressed with the upper plate with a view to induce tho
discharge, to pass the other copper wire over the file. By operating thus in the
dark, the spark is not long in making its appearance on the file. It was in this
way that I obtained the phenomenon in experimenting at Naples, on a living
gymnotus, during the scientific congress of 1845.
In order to ascertain the effect of the discharge on the galvanometer, we
should have two lamine of platina united to the wires of the instrument, and
touch with these laminz the two faces of the organ of the torpedo on which are
spread galvanoscopie frogs. Whenever the fish yields the discharge, the frogs
contract and the galvanometer shows a prompt deviation. Any galvanometer
of 500 or 600 coils, with a system judiciously astatic, suffices for the experi-
ment. The constant result is, that in the circuit of the galvanometer a current
passes directed from the back to the belly of the fish. It is worth noticing that
on introducing into the circuit of the galvanometer a liquid stratum somewhat
long and divided by diaphragms of platina, if the fish be quite vivacious, the
current indicated by the galvanometer undergoes no variation from the re-
sistance introduced into the circuit.
If the operation be conducted after the surface of the fish is wiped dry, and
when some litile enfeeblement has taken place, it will be soon apparent that the
discharge is stronger at those points of the organ which are thickest, that is, in
proximity with the median line of the animal. Hence it is that on touching
with the extremities of the galvanometer two points of the same face of one of
the organs, provided they correspond to different thicknesses, we have the dis-
charge ; if the back be touched, the discharge proceeds from the thicker points
of the organ to those less thick ; if the ventral face of the organ be touched, the
discharge passes from the thinner points of the organ to those which are thicker.
For the same reason and by the same law the discharge is procured on
touching upon the same face two non-symmetrical points of the two organs.
From this we may infer why it is that the galvanoscopic frog well isolated con-
tracts if a long piece of its nervous filament is extended on the organ.
I will mention, finally, that on cutting perpendicularly one of the organs of
the living torpedo, the discharge is obtained in the galvanometer by touching
with the ends of platina two points of the incision, and that this discharge is
proportionably stronger as the points touched are further from one another, the
336 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
same direction being always observed—that is, from the point nearest the back
to the point nearest the belly in the are of the galvanometer. In a word, the
poles or polar surfaces are the dorsal and the ventral surface of the organ.
In operating with the galvanometer on the gymnotus, a strong deviation is
likewise obtained in the act of the discharge, by placing the extremities of the
instrument in contact with those of the animal. All other circumstances being
equal, the deviation increases by increasing the surface of the electrodes in con-
tact with the fish, and this is distinctly seen in the torpedo. In proportion ag
the extremities of the galvanometer approach one another towards the middle of
the gymnotus the discharge is diminished, and the same occurs when the dis-
charge is received with the hands. With the gymnotus the discharge is directed
in the galvanometer from the head to the tail of the fish.
Quite recently Ranzi, an eminent surgeon, whose loss Italy still deplores, re-
ceived from me, on the occasion of a visit which he made to Egypt, instruments
and instructions for studying the discharge of the silurus of the Nile, and to
him we owe the discovery of the direction of the discharge in that fish, a dis-
covery since verified at Berlin in a living silurus. In this fish, whose body is
also elongated, the poles of the electrical organ are at the extremities of its body,
but, strangely enough, in opposition to the gymnotus, the positive pole is here:
towards the tail and the negative pole towards the head. .
After having thus shown the electrical phenomena of the discharge of the
torpedo, phenomena which cannot differ from those of other electrical fishes, we
should now. proceed to state the principal facts on which the theory of these
animal electro-motors is founded. But it is necessary first to give some account
of the structure of the electric organs, which does not essentially differ in one
fish and another. In general the organ in question is constituted by an albumin-
ous liquid contained in certain cylindrical or prismatic cavities which have a
membranaceous envelope and are separated transversely by partitions of very
thin membrane. These masses or prismatic columns are disposed in the tor-
pedo with their bases in contact with the skin of the back and belly, and henee
when the fish is in its natural position the prisms are vertical. In the gymnotus,
on the contrary, the prisms are horizontal and parallel to the axis of the body,
and have their bases at the head and at the tail of the animal. Analogous to
the structure of the organ of the gymnotus is that of the organ of the silurus.
The chemical composition of the substance of the organ is that of the liquid
which fills the prisms and the cellules of which these are composed, and which
is in great part a solution of albumina; a thousand parts of the substance of the
organ of the torpedo contain 903.4 of water. The fresh substance of the organ
is neutral, and it is only on leaving it for some time in the air that its consistency
is found to diminish, when it becomes partially fluid, and then offers a slight
alkaline reaction. A part of the composition of the organ is formed by the cel-
lular matter and a considerable quantity of fatty matter containing phosphorus,
which is probably due to the great number of nervous filaments distributed in
the electric organ. Anatomists have found that the nerves of this organ have
in different fishes a different origin. In the torpedo these nerves proceed from
the fifth and eighth pair, while in the gymnotus the nerves of the organ are all
spinal nerves. The brain of the torpedo is distinguished by a large mass which
stretches behind the olfactory and optic lobes and the cerebellum, a mass which
exists only in a rudimentary state in the brain of fishes of the same species.
This mass, which is called the fourth or electric lobe, seems to consist of an ex-
pansion of the medulla elongata, and is composed in part of elementary fibres
which furnish nerves to the organ, and especially of gray and ganglionic matter.
Hunter counted in an organ of the torpedo four hundred and seventy prisms,
and succeeding anatomists have ascertained that each of these prisms contains
about two thousand superposed cellules. The prisms of the gymnotus are con-
siderably longer than those of the torpedo, for they extend almost from one ex-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. Bei |
tremity of the fish to the other. The number of prisms in each of the organs
of the gymnotus is much less than in the torpedo, but in each of these prisms
are contained about four thousand cellules or elementary organs. From these
numbers it results that the cellules of the organ of the torpedo are smaller than
those of the gymnotus, and accordingly ten diaphragms of a prism of the gym-
notus form a height which is six times greater than that occupied by ten dia-
phragms in the prism of the torpedo. The surface of the cellules is also very
different in the two organs: the cellule of the gymnotus has about fifty square mil-
limetres of surface, and that of the torpedo has only from six to eight millimetres.
In fine, the sum total of prisms in the organ of the torpedo is about ten times
greater than that of the prisms in the gymnotus. It may be approximately as-
sumed that orfe of the two organs of the torpedo contains nine hundred and forty —
thousand cellules, while the organ of the gymnotus? though larger, contains only
one hundred and ninety-two thousand cellules; hence the volume of one of the
cells of the gymnotus is seventy or eighty times greater than the volume of the
cellule of the torpedo. The nerves distributed in the organ are ramified upon the
diaphragms which constitute the cellules, and are therefore extended in planes
transverse to the axes of the prisms.
Very recently Pacini and some of the anatomists of Germany have assured
us that in every diaphragm there are found two lamin, one of connective cel-
lular tissue, and the other, which they have termed the electrical lamina, of
nervous elements. There would seem to exist a relation between the position
of this electrical lamina and the relative distribution of the poles in different
electrical fishes. If this relation were well demonstrated and generalized it would
furnish an important datum for the theory of the electric organ.
After these anatomical statements we will proceed to a consideration of the
fundamental fact on which rests the theory of these electro-motors, and which
leads to the conclusion that the cellule of the organ is the elementary electro-
motor of that organ. To show this, I detach from the organ of the living tor-
pedo a portion as small as possible, and remembering the position which this
portion occupied with reference to the faces of the fish, I apply the extremities
of the galvanometer to the bases of the prisms of the portion in question. If
I now irritate, in any manner, the nervous filaments of this detached piece, I am
secure of obtaining the discharge, and consequently the deviation of the needle
in the same direction it would have with the entire organ. This experiment may
be made on a piece of the organ not larger than the head of a pin; for if we
place upon this the nerve of a galvanoscopic frog and wound the piece with a
very fine forfex, we at once observe the contraction of the frog.
Among the stimulants applied to the nerves of the organs, the electrie current
was naturally considered. or this purpose one of the organs of a living tor-
pedo is rapidly detached, and by an incision the nerves distributed within it are
exposed to view. It is best to keep each of these nerves suspended by a silk
thread, and galvanoscopie frogs are distributed on the surface of the organ to
indicate the discharges. An electric current is then made to pass now into one
and now into another of these nerves. he discharge obtained is constantly in
the usual direction in the galvanometer—that is, from the back to the belly. On
separately irritating different nerves, the contractions of the frogs show that the
discharge occurs each time in the portion of the organ in which the irritated
nerve ramifies. Under the irritation produced by the current on the nerves the
discharge of the electric organ pursues a like course with the muscular con-
traction. At first, when the organ is scarcely fatigued, there is a discharge as
well at the opening as at the closing of the cireuit; when the excitability of the
nerves is enfeebled the discharge occurs at the commencement of the direct and
the end of the inverse current.
I have sought to discover whether the function of the electric organ is ac-
companied by a variation of the volume or of the form of the organ. For this
22 8
338 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
purpose I placé the torpedo in a glass receptacle which is filled with water and
exactly closed with a cork stopper; through the stopper pass two copper wires
covered with gutta-percha and inserted in the skin of the fish in proximity to
the nerves of the organ; a tube of glass open at both extremities also passes,
in which a column of the liquid of the vessel remains suspended as an index.
On irritating the torpedo with the current of an electré-magnetic machine we
may be assured that the animal yields the shock by placing also prepared frogs
in the vessel. It will thus be ascertained that the discharge occurs without any
sensible variation in the volume of the fish. It might be that the volume of the
organ 1s not altered, as is the case with muscles in the act of contraction, which
yet become shortened. To ascertain whether this occurs in the torpedo, I take a
lever of straw or very thin glass, with very unequal arms, and restthe extremity
of the shorter arm on the fac@ of the organ; it will be seen that in the act of the
discharge the extremity of the long arm remains unmoved.
Let us now inquire what relation exists between the electric function of the
torpedo and the nervous action. To evince this relation, the experiments which
we have made to prove that the cellule of the electric organ constitutes the ele-
mentary electro-motor will suffice. It is known that when the torpedo or gym-
notus has given a certain number of discharges it is necessary to allow some
time to intervene that the organ may recover its faculty; the organ and its
nervous system are exhausted by being brought into action, as are the nerves _
and muscles by contraction.
In this connexion it is proper to notice the special function exercised by the
fourth lobe of the brain on the discharge of the organ. We have already seen
that on irritating the torpedo at any point whatever of its body, the fish responds
by an action which proceeds through the medium of the nerves of sense from
the irritated point to the brain, and from the brain to the electric organ by means
of the large nervous branches which are distributed therein, and which have no
other function than that of determining the discharge. The fourth Jobe is the
centre, in which is collected and from which proceeds the nervous action of the
organ. I take a living torpedo, in which I rapidly remove the covering of the
brain, I distribute: prepared frogs on the body of the torpedo, and then, from
time to time, mechanically irritate the different lobes of the brain and the
spinal medulla. I perceive, on performing the experiment carefully, that it is
the irritation of the fourth lobe which specially determines the discharge, and
that this proceeds now from the right and now from the left organ, according as
I touch at one time the right, at another the left part of the fourth lobe. I re-
move entirely the three first lobes of the brain, and divide the medulla elongata
immediately under the fourth lobe. The fish now neither renders the discharge
voluntarily, nor when irritated in some part of its body; there is no longer any-
thing but irritation of the fourth lobe which gives rise to strong discharges. I
have proposed to try, by irritating a nervous fibre uncovered in the middle of
the organ, whether the irritation of this fibre ever excited the discharge in that
part of the organ corresponding to the centripetal portion of such nerve, but
have in no case obtained any sign of this retrogressive excitation of the nerve of
the electric organ. Strychnia and morphia kill the torpedo by exciting strong
muscular contractions, and at the same time compelling the animal to yield fre-
quent discharges. With strychnia the torpedo is thrown into a state of super-
excitation, so that the slightest blow given to the surface on which the fish lies
occasions the discharge. Poisoned with curare, a torpedo, which no longer
yields muscular contractions when its nerves are irritated, does not therefore
cease to give the electrical discharge.
It behooved also to study the influence of the sanguineous circulation and
of respiration on the electrical function of the torpedo. Galvani was one of the
first who proved that this fish, depleted of blood, continues to yield the dis-
charge. ‘The sanguineous circulation is, therefore, not immediately necessary to
4
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 339
the function of the electric organ. The temperature of the water in which the
fish is placed has great influence on that function. If the torpedo be placed in
water at four or five degrees above zero, or still colder, it ceases at once to move
or to give discharges. It is not, therefore, dead, and may be kept for a long
time at this low temperature in a limited quantity of sea-water, since, respiring
less, the air therein will for a longer time supply its requirements. After im-
mersion for a few minutes in water at +15° to 20°, the torpedo resumes the
electric function which had been suspended while it was in the cold water.
Placed in water of +30° or 40°, the fish gives several discharges, and soon
dies; the circulation and respiration, quickened by the higher temperature,
probably increase the nervous action, but respiration presently ceases, because
the air of the water is too rapidly consumed. By measuring and analyzing the
air disengaged in the water in which torpedoes have been kept, I have found
that the exercise of the electric function is attended with greater activity of
respiration, whence, under equal conditions, there is considerably less oxygen
in the air disengaged in water in which there has been a torpedo provoked to
give many discharges, than in that in which a torpedo has been left in repose.
Jt should be added that the coagulation of the albumina of the substance of the
organ destroys the electric function.
The ultimate conclusion to which all the experiments made upon the torpedo
and other electric fishes conduct us is the following :
“ The irritation of the nerve of the electric organ transmitted in the direction
of its ramification, when arrived at the extremity of the nerve, and consequently
in the elementary cellule of the organ, electrically polarizes that cellule, and by
an action analogous to electro-magnetism develops transversely to its direc-
tion, and upon the two faces of each diaphragm, opposite electrical states.”
There can be no difficulty in understanding, in the light of this principle, the
chief properties of the electric organ. Each prism of the organ resulting from
a great number of superposed cellules, it is clear that the poles of the organ
must always be at the extremities of the prisms, and that the electric tension
will increase with the height of the prisms, and with the energy of the nervous
action. It is not so easy to understand, at least by the law of the voltaic bat-
tery, the influence of the volume of the cellules, and especially of the number of
the prisms. ‘These two conditions should cause a variation of the internal re-
sistance of the batteries and of the prisms, and not of the electro-motive force,
and hence not of the intensity of the discharge, since this is generally trans-
mitted by bodies which have a much greater resistance than the organ of the
torpedo. ‘That the tension depends on the number of cellules is proved by the
influence of the height of the prisms; and is proved also by the discharge of the
torpedo, which, at an equal height of organ, is stronger than that of the gym-
notus, because the elementary cellules in the former are much the most delicate.
If we were acquainted with the intimate nature of the electro-motor element
of these fishes, we should very probably know how the number of the prisms
and their division act in the discharge. It is a fact that the discharge in the
galvanometer increases with the extension of the electrodes which touch the
organ of the torpedo. Since each of the prisms is polarized independently one
of the other under the irritation of its proper nerve, it may be inferred that the
total discharge is the effect of the sum of the simultaneous, though independent,
discharges of the different prisms.
_ It remains, then, to know what is the intimate manner of action of the ele-
mentary electro-motor, and thence to discover the relation between the distribu-
tion of the nerves in the organ, its structure, and the distribution of the electri-
cal states in the organ itself. It is only of late that we have succeeded in throw-
ing some light on these problems, and I shall terminate the study of the electric
a of these animals by briefly stating the principal results obtained on this
subject.
340 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
It is now proved that the organ of the torpedo, and probably that of other
electric fishes, is not an electro-motor instantaneously ealled into action, but an
electro-motor which is constantly active. I take, therefore, from a torpedo, dead
for several hours, a piece of the organ, which I reduce to a cubic form and render
as small as conveniently may be, without forgetting the position of the bases of
the prisms with reference to the back and belly of the fish. This piece, placed
on the gutta-percha support, is brought into contact with the cushions of the
most sensitive galvanometer. If I touch the bases corresponding to the belly
and the back, | obtain a deviation equivalent to the entire quadrant, and which .
indicates a current directed in the galvanometer from the back to the belly, as
in the discharge of the fish. ‘The needle settles at 70 or 80 degrees, and the
deviation endures for several hours, decreasing very slowly. By touching the
longitudinal wall of the prisms, and now one, now the other of the bases, a de-
viation is obtained which is slighter, but still in the direction of the discharge.
There is no deviation in the single case in which I touch at the same time any
of the two lateral faces.
This constant electro-motor power of the organ of the torpedo persists long
after the excitability of the nerve is completely extinct. I have left a torpedo for
twenty-four hours in a tin vessel surrounded with a frigorific mixture, and after
that lapse of time a portion of its organ and a portion of that of another torpedo
left in the air have presented no difference. I have found the same result in a
torpedo which had been for five days in ice. Even in a torpedo poisoned with
curare the proper electro-motor power of the organ persists as in a torpedo un-
touched. I have also verified, by resorting to the so-called differential method,
that this electro-motor power of the organ is independent of the size of the piece
on which we operate—that, is, of the number of prisms of which it is composed,
and that, on the other hand, it is proportional to the length of the prisms. Nor
does the power in question vary through the nature of the gas in which the
portion of the organ is kept. This was verified by keeping it in air more or
less varified, in oxygen, carbonic acid and hydrogen. On the contrary, if the
organ is kept immersed in any liquid for ten or twelve hours, the power is much
weakened. Saline solutions act feebly, but acid or alkaline solutions even very
much diluted, and in which the organ is immersed but a few hours, entirely de-
stroy the electro-motor power. On comparing a piece of the organ taken from a
living torpedo with the gastrocnemian of a frog of the same length, the electro-
motor power of the organ is found to prevail over the muscle; but two of the
latter united overcome the organ.
The result which I consider most interesting as regards the theory of the
electric function of the fish is the influence which the excitation of the nervous
system of the organ exercises in permanently increasing its electro-motor power.
‘he experiment is decisive and easily performed. I take from the same torpedo
two equal pieces of organ, with the precaution that each of them shall have
united with it a portion of the nervous trunk. I oppose these pieces to one
another by bringing into contact either the two faces of the back or those of
the belly, and assure myself that there is no differential current. «Then, the
double battery being decomposed, I irritate with the electric current or with an
instrument the nerve of one of the pieces, which yields several successive dis-
charges, as is indicated by the galvanoscopic frog. I now recompose the battery,
and find a strong differential current in the piece of organ which has given the
discharges and which has been in action. The differential current continues
diminishing, till after a certain time it becomes null. The phenomenon may be
then reproduced in the same piece several times in succession, a diminution,
however, in the differential current being always observed, which is, of course,
owing to the cessation of the discharges of the organ. The conclusion is, that
the excitation of the nervous system increases the electro-motor power of the
organ; in the living animal it is exalted to the point of yielding strong dis-
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 341
charges; but this power still persists when the nerves of the organ have for a
long | time lost every trace of excitability. I will finally add that the action
of the electric organ is not accompanied by the development of caloric, eveu
whén the most delicate instruments are used to detect it, and that a piece of
organ enclosed in a limited space of air may give many successive discharges
without producing any sensible modification in the air.
These conclusions, deduced from rigorous experiments, show the differences
which exist between the function of the electric organ and that of the muscular
contraction. Without pretending to give the theory of the mode of action of
the electric organ, I will not withhold the opinion that these results would be
readily explained on the hypothesis that in every cell there are substances of
different nature which react chemically by generating electric currents, and that
these materials are secreted in greater quantity by the excitation of the nervous
system. I will merely intimate that these substances might be an acid and a
base, and, in passing, notice the fact that if a piece of divided organ be left in a
funnel there issues a liquid which after some time has an alkaline reaction; the
aqueous infusion of the same divided organ being slowly evaporated leaves a
residuum which yields a very distinct acid sie Fark I do not from this facet,
I repeat, propose to say in what consists the electro-motor power of the torpedo;
but certainly the results which I have presented open a new path for investiga-
tion in the subject of animal electricity.
Electrical phenomena of muscular contraction—lIn the beginning of 1842 I
communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris an experiment which has
been the origin of an interesting branch of electro-physiology. It was tls: I
prepare one or more galvanoscopic frogs which are placed as usual on the gutta-
percha support, and I extend the nerves of these frogs upon the surface of the
exposed muscles of any animal living or recently killed. To render the experi-
ment more easy I take a frog prepared after Galvani’s manner and stretch the
nerves of the galvanoscopic fic ogs upon the muscles of its thighs. Whatever be the
means used to make these muscles contract, the galvanoscopic frog at the same
instant undergoes contraction. If the nerve of the galvanoscopic frog be placed
upon the heart of a frog.or other living animal, at every contraction of that
muscle the galvanoscopic frog suffers contraction. This phenomenon, which for
the sake of brevity I shall call exducted contraction, is realized whatever be the
manner in which the nerve is spread upon the muscle, and if the frog, which I
term inductive, is very vivacious, the inducted contraction is obtained even by
placing the nerve on the extremity of the foot, or by detaching promptly a por-
tion of muscle and forcing it to contract by incisions in different directions. In
this respect the experiment of inducted contraction appears analogous to the
discharge of the organ of the torpedo.
There exists no other organic tissue which, irritated in whatsoever manner,
excites the inducted contraction; the muscle itself, if taken from a frog killed
with curare, or with tendons so divided that contraction does not occur, will not,
on irritating the nerve, give rise to the inducted contraction. On the other hand,
by having several galvanoscopic frogs freshly prepared and very vivacious, and
arranging them in series—that is, placing the nerve of one on the gastrocnemius
of another—all will be seen to fall into contraction when one of the extreme ones
is made to contract. This is what may be termed having inducted contraction
of the second, of the third order. Attention has been directed to the influence of
bodies interposed between the nerve of the galvanoscopic frog and the muscle
in contraction, and it has been found that a good conducting stratum, leaf-gold
for instance, or a solid isolating stratum, though extremely thin, alike hinders the
inducted contraction. On the supposition that the phenomenon is analogous
to the discharge of the torpedo, we can understand how the conducting metallic
stratum, by allowing the discharge to pass entirely within itself, hinders the
effect of it on the nerve.. A stratum of oil or of turpentine was interposed and
342 ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY.
the inducted contraction was equally produced: the idea of the electric discharge
was not on that account excluded, because it was proved by experiment that
under like conditions a slight discharge of the jar made itself felt upon the nerve
of the galvanoscopic frog.
I propose to show still another experiment with the galvanoscopic frog which
will render clearer the nature of the inducted contraction. ‘The inductive frog
being prepared and placed upon an isolating plane, I place two wicks of cotton
or strips of paper moistened with water in contact with the extremities of
the frog—that is, one of them in contact with the upper thigh and the other
with the leg—and I fold the two cushions in such a way as to leave an interval
of some millimetres free between their extremities. Having then some galva-
noscopic frogs, fresh and vivacious, the circuit is closed by placing their nerves
between the two wicks or strips. We shall now see the galvanoscopic frogs
contract each time that the entire frog undergoes contraction. If one of the
wicks be detached, if at any point this circuit is opened, the contractions of the
galvanoscopie frog are at anend. This result leads necessarily to the admission
that in the act of contraction a homogeneous conducting are applied on the ex-
tremity of the muscle is traversed by an electric current, or rather by a discharge,
if we judge from its brief duration.
By varying these experiments with the galvanoscopic frog, placing some with
the nerves in a certain direction, and gthers with the nerves in an opposite
direction, it will be found generally that the contraction does not take place
except in the galvanoscopic frogs whose nerves are extended from the inferior
to thy superior extremity of the inductive muscle. In a word, having two galva-
noscopic frogs, whose two nerves close the circuit, arranged one against the other,
the most constant inducted contraction takes place in that which has the leg
turned towards the upper extremity of the inductive muscle. Similar experi-
ments were tried upon animals of warm blood and with analogous results,
although such experiments are sufliciently dificult from the brief duration of the
muscular irritability in these animals. By supposing the moistened wicks,
placed in contact with the inductive thigh, to be progressively smaller, we may
pass from this case to that of the inducted contraction, and to the conclusion
that the phenomenon is of the same nature, as well in placing the nerve directly
on the muscle as in forming the are in the manner I have shown. We thus
arrive at the conclusion that the inducted contraction is really the’ effect of an
electric discharge which occurs in the act of contraction, and the direction of
which, in the exterior arc, is contrary to the current of the same muscle in a
state of repose..
Inasmuch as the galvanoscopie frog is the most convenient instrument for the
study of electric currents of brief duration, it was proper to have recourse to
the galvanometer and to contemplate these electrical effects of contraction ©
through the accurate indications of that instrument. ‘This was done by Du Bois
Reymond in using a very delicate galvanometer and causing the inductive muscle
to contract several times in succession in order that the action might be prolonged.
The following is the mode in which he makes the experiment: A galvanoscopic
frog being placed on the cushions of the galvanometer, the nerve is kept isolated
in order to cause a series of electric currents to pass, which may in some measure
torpify the muscle, without giving room to the doubt that this current might
pass into the galvanometer. At first, as is natural, the needle deviates through
the muscular current. When the needle is distinctly fixed the muscle is made
to contract, and thereupon, if the contractions are strong and sustained, the
needle will be seen to move to zero, to pass beyond, and become fixed in the
opposite quadrant with a certain deviation, which lasts as long as the contractions
are strong. ‘l’o remove every doubt of the exactness of the experiment, Du Bois
Reymond has satisfied himself that the same thing occurs from irritating the
nerve with heat or by mechanical means, or employing a frog poisoned with nux
*
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 343
vomica. From all which he concludes: “that in the act of contraction the
electro-motor power of a muscle is diminished, whence the opposite current due to
the secondary polarity of the laminz being enabled to prevail over the muscular
current, not only does the needle descend to zero, but it is compelled to deviate
in an opposite direction.” When the experiment is made by using two opposed
gastrocnemians, one of which alone is made to contract, the explanation is still
more easy, according to Du Bois Reymond, for then it is the current of the
muscle left in repose which is the prevalent one, and which compels the needle
to deviate in the contrary direction. ;
As to the phenomenon of the inducted contraction, properly so called, Du Bois
Raymond admits that when the nerve of the galvanoscopic frog is placed in con-
tact with the muscle the muscular current circulates in it, and that the rapid
diminution or negative variation, as he calls it, of the same current, is the cause
of the contraction of the galvanoseopic frog. This supposes that in the nerve of
this frog the circuit of the muscular current is constantly established: instead of
which we have seen that the inducted contraction is obtained, whatever be the
manner in which the nerve is disposed; that it occurs from only touching with
the nerve the extremities of the leg of the frog, and that, following at the moment
of the contraction, it results that the nerve is traversed by a discharge which is
in an opposite direction to the muscular current.
It occurred to me that to remove every doubt on the interpretation of the
electric phenomenon which accompanies the contraction, it would be sufficient to
repeat the experiments with the galvanometer by the method which excludes
the secondary polarity. This I have done after having satisfied myself that
there was in fact no sensible trace of secondary polarity, even after having
caused to pass in the lamine currents much more intense than the muscular
current. Now, even in this manner, when strong contractions are excited in the
muscle placed in the circuit of the galvanometer, the needle immediately declines
and continues to oscillate for some moments in the opposite quadrant. Ina
word, the result is not different when the secondary polarity of the laminz enters
into the experiment or when this polarity is entirely excluded. ‘To succeed
better with the experiment, instead of the gastrocnemian, the thigh of the frog
may be used, by which we have from the first a muscular current which is small
and often even null. Then, under the contractions the deviation of the needle
immediately takes place in the same direction in which that deviation occurred
when the muscular current circulated from the first in the galvanometer.
I propose also a simple arrangement with which the experiment succeeds
more easily and certainly. In a piece of varnished wood I form two cavities in
the shape of the two connected thighs of a frog. In the same wood is formed
another cavity divided into two compartments which are filled with sulphate of
zing, and in which are immersed the amalgamated laminz of the galvanometer.
I take a lively frog and reduce it to the two thighs alone, leaving the lumbar
nerve to a single thigh. The other thigh, thotigh not.meant to contract, is left
only that there may not be a transverse incision in the inductive thigh, which
would introduce a new cause of the muscular current. To establish the cireuit
I use two pieces of hempen string secured with sealing-wax to a plate of glass,
which is so placed that on one part the two strings touch the extremities of the
galvanometer, and on the other two points of the thigh at a distance of about
ten millimetres apart. The thigh should be pressed with the lamina, that it
may be certain that during the contraction the contact remains unaltered. Gen-
erally, when the circuit is closed, there is a slight deviation, first in one direction,
then in the other, as is known to occur from touching in various points the
muscle of the thigh. We now irritate the lumbar nerve with a current several
times in succession, which nerve is kept suspended and isolated by a silk thread.
The deviation which results, and which continues as long as the strong con-
tractions of the thigh endure, always indicates a current which is directed in
344 : ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY..
the galvanometer from the lower to the upper extremity of the thigh, and there-
fore in a contrary direction to that which is obtained from the gastrocnemian or
from the entire frog in repose. I have further modified this experiment by
forming with a slight incision a transverse section in the upper part of the thigh.
In this way there circulates in the galvanometer from the first a muscular cur-
rent in a contrary direction to the current of the gastrocnemian. The experiment
is repeated on the thigh, which is made to contract, and as often as several
violent contractions occur, the deviation in the galvanometer is seen also to in-
erease. In this case the discharge which accompanies the contraction is in the
same direction with the current which before circulated in the galvanometer.
To these experiments and conclusions there was opposed in Germany a mode
of performing the experiment of inducted contraction with the galvanometer,
which would have led to a consequence opposed to our own, and by which it
was thought the secondary polarity might be avoided. This mode consists in
causing the muscle to contract several times and then closing the circuit of the
galvanometer. This experiment, which I have often repeated and varied, leads
to a result which was to be foreseen from constant observation, and on which I
have frequently insisted ; that is, that the electric phenomenon of contraction
decreases rapidly with the weakening of the contraction, and is in general not
produced, except under the strongest contractions, which are the first, and which
quickly cease, especially by using a strong inducted current to excite the nerve.
The result is, that in such case the cireuit is scarcely closed after the first con-
tractions have occurred, when the needle makes a slight deviation in a direction
opposed to the muscular current, sometimes seems undecided in its movements,
and, if the circuit be closed after many contractions, deviates in the direction of
the muscular current, but more feebly than with the muscle in repose.
From all the results which I have cited, as well in operating with the galvan-
ometer as with the galvanoscopic frog, I find myself always led to the conclu-
sion, at which Cima has also arrived by repeating these experiments upon the
higher animals, viz: that in the act of contraction of gertain muscles there is
an instantaneous current, or rather discharge, which flows in the galvanometer
in a contrary direction to the current circulating therein, when the muscles,
touched by the extremities of the galvanometer, are in repose. It must be econ-
fessed, however, that properly to generalize this result, it would be necessary
that we should be able to operate on the muscles of the higher animals in which
the muscular irritability ceases with extreme rapidity.
From this conclusion we do not infer that the electric phenomena of the mus-
cle in repose and that of the muscle in contraction have a different origin.
Notwithstanding appearances, we have an opposite conviction; and if there
could in experimental science be any advantage in framing hypotheses, we might,
by recurring to analogy with well-known electrical apparatus, conceive hoay it
would be practicable, irom the same electro-motor, with a change of form in the
various parts of the circuit, to obtain in the galvanometer currents in opposite
directions. But this procedure we are not willing to adopt, and prefer rather to
say that we must wait till a true knowledge of the form of the muscular electro-
motor is acquired, in order to see this species of anomaly disappear.
I will conclude this lecture by adducing a new fact of muscular electricity
which clearly lends itself to the support of the theory we have formed respect-
ing the production of this electricity. I prepare from the same frog two half
thighs, oppose them to one another, and find by the galvanometer that they are
equal. I then cause one of these half thighs to contract several times by irri-
tating the nerve which is attached. I quickly thereupon recompose the double
battery, and now find a strong differential current in the direction of the muscle
left in repose. This current continues a certain time, but constantly decreases,
and finally the needle returns to zero. The phenomenon is produced by new
contractions, but is naturally less intense, because the contractions become con-
>
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 345
tinually weaker. The consequence of this fact, according to all analogy, is,
that the chemical actions, on which depends the muscular electricity, are con-
sumed in the contraction, and are gradually restored through repose. This
fact, however, should not be confounded with the instantaneous electric phe-
nomenon of the inducted contraction which is produced in the very act of the
contraction.
It is proper that I should notice the difference which exists between the elec-
tric organ of the torpedo and the muscular electro-motor. 'The function of the
former does not develop heat; does not produce movement; is not accompanied
by the chemical action of combustion between the oxygen and the substance of
the organ; the nervous irritation of the organ of the torpedo does not perma-
nently increase the electro-motor power, as though that irritation acted upon an
apparatus of secretion, and from the product of that secretion the electro-motor
element of the organ had its origin. In the muscle, on the other hand, all pro-
ceeds from the chemical action which arises between the oxygen and the sub-
stance of the muscle; hence the heat, movement, electricity which accompany
that chemical action. When an excess of contraction occurs, there is an excess
of consumption of this chemical action which must necessarily be followed by a
diminution of the electro-motor power of the muscle.
Arrived at the termination of this course, I cannot but be grateful for the
attention manifested, and indulge the hope that, on some not distant occasion, I
may again meet you in order to treat of some other of those branches of physics
with which I have occupied and still occupy myself.
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PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL
BY E. DESOR: 4
WITH DESIGNS BY PROF. A. FAVRE-GUILLARMOD.
TRANSLATED, WITH THE AUTHOR’S RECENT ADDITIONS, FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
. PREFACE.
The following essay does not profess to be a summary of the whole of our
knowledge respecting lacustrian constructions, still less to present a picture of
the civilization of central Europe during the three ages of stone, of bronze,
and of iron, which are represented in our lake. We have neither the authority
nor the resources necessary for embracing so vast a subject. What we propose
is but a simple excursion into a domain which, though not our own, is by no
means a foreign one. When, twelve years ago, the discoveries of prehistoric .
antiquities at the bottom of the lake of Zurich first awakened the interest and
curiosity of all the friends of science in Switzerland, we were tempted, after
the example of MM. Schwab, Troyon, Morlot, and Rochat, to seek what the
lakes at the foot of Jura might contain. We were not long in being satisfied
that these lakes, and especially that of Neuchatel, were richly endowed; and
the idea occurred to us of applying to lacustrian researches the methods em-
ployed in geology, hoping that by taking into account certain accessory circum-
stances, to which archeologists do not always accord the importance which they
merit—such as the distribution of objects, their frequency, their association,
their state of preservation at different stations—we might perhaps obtain a pic-
ture, if not more complete, at least more exact, of the conditions of the exist-
ence of our primitive populations.
Setting out from this point of view, we directed our inquiries chiefly to the
_ stations which present a definite stamp, and which, like the characteristic re-
positories in paleontology, may be regarded as authentic for the age of stone,
the age of bronze, or the age of iron. On the other hand, we have attached but
a secondary importance to the stations which comprise the remains of several
ages, even when very rich, like the station of Nidau at the lake of Bienne, that
of Font at the lake of Neuchatel, and that of Montillier at the lake of Morat.
The antiquities which these stations disclose will always possess a real interest
as*objects of curiosity, or as serving as the complement of specimens collected
elsewhere; but we should hesitate in conceding to them a conclusive value
when the determination of the cliaracter of an epoch is in question.
Our first researches were given to the public in an article in the Almanach
de la Société @ Utiité Publique de Neuchatel in 1859; a second edition, con-
siderably enlarged, appeared in the Bibliotheque Universelle of 1862. Mean-
hile discoveries multiplied from day to day, the age of iron in particular
)wnishing a large contingent of rare and new objects, and we were thereby
induced to publish a new edition, which appeared in the Musée Neuchdtelois
of 1864, accompanied with several plates.
°
348 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
At the present hour the mine is far from being exhausted ; new treasures have
been still added to those which we already possessed. And as the interest of
the scientific public has not ceased to encourage us, we have not thoucht proper
to resist the temptation held out to us by our friend, Mr. Reinwald, librarian at
Paris, of giving to the essay in question a wider publicity, as well as greater
extent, accompanying it, on this occasion, with numerous engravings, which will
| allow amofe thorough comparison with the an- »
tiquities of other localities, whether collected l
on firm land, in the tombs, the hypogeums, 4}
the dolmens, &e. E
As the lacustrian constructions, to which §)|
the antiquities of our lakes appertain, con-
stitute at the present day a definite type, there
would seem to be room for designating them
| by a specific name, like other monuments,
such as dolmens, pyramids, &e. The Ger-
man name of Pfah/bauten, (constructions on f
pile-work,) proposed by M. Ferd. Keller, and
ki} now popularized in Germany and Switzer-
| land, bas been adopted by Italian archeolo-
{| gists under the form of palafitta. Hence the §
}| appellation of palafitte which we propose to §}
introduce into our language.
In recommending the geological and pale-
ontological methods for the study of our la- §}
custrian antiquities, we must be understood #
as having imposed on ourselves the greatest
reserve in determining the age of our differ-
ent palafittes. There can be scarcely a ques-
tion of dates, except for the epoch of iron.
As to the ages of stone and bronze, we shall
esteem ourselves fortunate if this essay shall
furnish some terms of comparison to those
who occupy themselves with the origin and
affinities of the ancient races which have peo-
pled Europe. ;
As the antiquities of the age of stone are
widely distributed, and much better known
than those of the subsequent ages, we have
dispensed with entering into all the details §
which this phase of the prehistoric period §
would permit. On the other hand, we have
given so much more attention to the pala-
fittes of the age of iron, which are a speci-
ality of our lake, at the same time that they
| serve as a link uniting historical with prehis-
4 toric times. B
+ The principal implements employed in the 3%
search for antiquities in our lakes are a sort ff \
of hand-hoe, (figure A,) and of tongs, (figure f
B,) provided with a cord for retraction, by \ |
means of which quite small objects can be “Sy
: recovered, suchas knivesandpins,fromadepth ™
Figure A. Figure D.
of four or five metres. The annexed drawing represents our operator, B. Kopp,
searching with the tongs in the midst of a palafitte, (figure C.) To the skilfw
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 349
pencil of Professor A. Favre-Guillarmod we are indebted for all the designs with
' which this essay is embellished. Our types have been, as faras possible, selected
Figure C. :
from our own collection, with a view to facilitate the task of those who may
feel an interest in comparing the originals.
INTRODUCTION:
Tt has been long known to the inhabitants upon the shores of the Swiss lakes
that there existed in many of them ancient posts or piles, which, without reach-
ing the surface, rose to a height of 30 or 60 centimetres above the bottom. On
Lake Neuchatel they were especially known to the fishermen, who dreaded
them as a cause of injury to their nets. Doubtless, also, boatmen, in crossing
the bay of Auvernier, or coasting along the southern shore when the weather
was calm, have now and then stopped for a moment above them, wondering
meanwhile to whom the strange idea could have occurred of driving piles at such _
a depth; and as no inhabitant, not even the oldest fishermen, could tell anything
about their origin, the only conclusion arrived at was that “all this must be very
ancient.’’ More than once, also, from the ooze of the lake had been drawn, at
low waiter, large horns of the deer, and strange utensils whose origin was un-
known; among other occasions, at the lake of Zurich in 1829, and still later
-at the lake of Bienne. These things, however, remained a dead letter; the
circumstance was thought to be curious, but nothing more. An idea has sufliced
to restore life, in some sort, to these ancient remains, and draw from them a dis-
closure of surprising facts. A man of true science happens to pass in the neigh-
borhood of the works which, during the low stages of water of the winter of
1853-1854, were in course of execution at Meilen, on Lake Zurich. To him
are shown the half decomposed posts withdrawn from the black deposit on the
strand, which the lake had temporarily abandoned, and here and there some
fragments of rude pottery, evidently very ancient, but not Roman, for it is black,
imperfectly baked, and fashioned by the hand without the help of the potter’s _
wheel. The utensils, the arms, the posts, which accompany them, have a still
more primitive aspect; they recall the analogous objects collected in the peat-
mosses of Scandinavia, and must, consequently, be of very high antiquity.
What had escaped all notice was the relation which these objects bear to one
350 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
another, and especially to the piles imbedded in the ooze. Yet the arms and
pottery are not dispersed at hazard; they are limited to a particular stratum,
having a thickness of two feet, which has received the name of “archeological
stratum,” (Cultur-Schicht.) Moreover, they are accumulated around the piles,
where they are found in large quantity, while they diminish and disappear in
proportion as they retire from it. “There was a connexion then between the
piles and the antique objects.
It was this connexion which our friend, M. Ferdinand Keller, guided by his
practiced eye, was enabled to detect, and which, once caught sight of, has become
the torch to conduct us to the discovery of a whole unknown world.
In effect, such an association of arms and utensils indicated beyond a doubt
traces of man. The piles, upright in the midst of these objects, had been placed
there by design, evidently to support some construction. But as their founda-
tion is below the mean water level, they must necessarily have been planted in
the water. There had existed, therefore, habitations or storehouses built inten-
tionally on the water at the place indicated by the piles. The number of
scattered utensils, corresponding to the thickness of the bed which contains
them, bore witness, in turn, to a prolonged sojourn. Consequently, there had
been an epoch during which the inhabitants of our country constructed places
of refuge on the water, if, indeed, they did not dwell there. It was the period
of lacustrian constructions.
The history of the sciences does not afford many examples of so brilliant an
acquisition by human sagacity; it recalls that which, in another province, we
owe to the genius of Cuvier. Long before this great naturalist the bones of
mammals had been collected in the plaster-quarries of Montmartre; but no
one had perceived the relations of these remains to one another, and to the
medium in which they are concealed. They were looked upon as vestiges of
the deluge. Cuvier studies these ancient and petrified skeletons, and recognizes
in their association and manner of deposition the traces of a whole creation
anterior to man. ‘To the French naturalist ome fossil bones had thus sufficed
for the reconstruction of a phase of the history of the earth: some fragments of
pottery, buried under the gravel of the lake of Zurich, sufficed to our own
learned antiquary for the revelation of a forgotten cycle of humanity beyond the
bounds of history. The hint being once given by the first publication of M.
Keller,* in the Memoirs of the Archeological Society of Zurich, the zeal and
activity of our Swiss antiquaries might safely be relied upon to elaborate this
new vein, which, indeed, did not long delay to furnish us with scientific treasures.
They began by seeking for piles in the other lakes of Switzerland. The
fishermen could almost everywhere point them out, and these piles became, in
turn, valuable guides in conducting to unexpected discoveries. At Meilen, with
the exception of a single object in metal, only utensils of bone and stone had
‘been brought to light. Elsewhere, and more especially in the lakes of eastern
Switzerland, beside stations recalling those of Lake Zurich, were discovered
other stations which, instead of objects in silex and bone, yielded numbers of
utensils in bronze. 'These articles bore witness to a much more advanced civili-
zation. ‘The lacustrian period, therefore, embraced several distinct phases. It ~
became an interesting problem to investigate, and fix, if possible, the peculiar
character of these different phases or epochs. This work was everywhere pressed
forward ; discoveries rapidly multiplied, and gave rise to numerous publications
devoted to the deseription of new stations, and the antiquities which they con-
tained. Nor was the necessity of co-ordinating the facts obtained slow in making
*Die keltischen Pfahlbauten in den Schweizerseenm—Communications to the Antiquarian
Society, Zurich, 1854.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 351
itself felt, whence at present we are in possession of several systematic works
on lacustrian constructions, which, while evincing the science and sagacity of
their authors, have powerfully contributed to diffuse a taste for the study of this
old world, scarcely resuscitated from the tomb of unrecorded centuries. Among
the number of works which have obtained a well-merited success may be cited,
as in the first rank, that of M. Troyon, (Habitations lacustres des temps anctens
et modernes, Lausanne, 1860;) that of M. Morlot, (tudes Geologico- Archeolo-
giques en Danemark et en Suisse, Bulletins de la Societé Vaudoise des Se. Nat.,
1860 ;) to which may be now added a third, that of M. Schaub, (Die Pfahlbau-
ten in den Schweizerseen, Zurich, 1864,) which is especially calculated to popu-
larize throughout our country the study of lacustrian constructions.
The lake of Neuchatel, thanks to the interest which the inhabitants of its
shores cherish for the history of their native land, could not fail to stimulate interest-
ing discoveries. ‘There, pile-works were known to exist at many localities—at
Bied, Cortaillod, Auvernier, Chez-le-Bart, St. Aubin, Concise, Corcelles, Corce-
lettes, Font, Estavayer, Forel, Chevroux, Port Alban, Cudrefin, which became so
many fertile fields, in which inquiry was soon to be rewarded with abundant har-
vests. The low waters of 1858-1859 having facilitated the exploration of these
several stations, collections were gradually formed at different points of the shore.
It will suffice to mention those of the museum of Neuchatel, of M. Troyon, of M.
Portalés-Sandoz, at Lance; of Dr. Clement, at St. Aubin; of M. Rochat, at
Yverdon; of MM. Rey and de Vevey, at Estavayer, without counting our own,
and the most complete of all, that of Colonel Schwab, at Bienne.
But how ean habitations be conceived of at places now covered with water
to the depth of two and three metres? The first question usually asked is,
whether the waters of our lakes might not have been lower at the period referred
to than at present? This suggestion led to the inquiry whether there existed
at the outlet of these lakes obstacles which, by obstructing the rivers, may have
raised the level of their waters. Land-slips have in fact been distinguished at
the mouth of the Thielle,* and it has been attempted to establish a relation be-
tween these and the ancient encroachments at Nidau, as well as the remains of
Roman roads in the grand marais, which are at present covered with peat. We
are far from pretending that certain lakes of Switzerland have not undergone
changes ; perhaps that of Neuchatel is of the number. But the fact must not
be lost sight of, that the phenomenon in question is a general one, and as pile-
work exists in nearly all the lakes, it would follow that all had been obstructed
at their outlet. Now, as thisis not the case, we are forced to admit that the
piles must have been sunk and secured under the water, and that consequently
the constructions which they supported were really lacustrian. The diameter
of the piles is in general too smallto have supported constructions at alk massive ;
there can be no question here, but of cabins of very frail character.t
At first glance, the idea may seem strange, if not absurd, that men should
have established themselves on the water instead of pitching their tents or
building their cabins on the terra firma ; but closer reflection will enable us to
comprehend that at the origin of the lacustrian period, at an epoch when the
soil of Switzerland was covered with forests and the borders of the lakes prob-
ably occupied by marshes, these lacustrian abodes may have offered to their in-
habitants a more secure asylum against the ambush of enemies and the attack
* See the article of M. Culmann, in the Schweizerische Polytechnische Zeitschrift, 111, pp.
9 and 10, on the bar of the Pfeidwald, near Nidase. :
+ For the form and appearance of these constructions we refer to the descriptions and
figures which have been published by MM. Keller, Troyon, and Lyell.
3a2 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
of savage animals. At a later period, the epoch of bronze, these stations,
as will be seen, served probably for simple magazines or places of assemblage.*
The idea of comparing the antiquities of our lakes with those found in so
great number in the islands of Denmark would naturally present itself to the
minds of our antiquaries. As soon as it was recognized that there existed, with
reference to their utensils, striking differences between the stations, some yield-
ing only arms and objects of silex or bone, others containing utensils and arms
of metal, especially of bronze, though sometimes also of iron, it could no longer
be supposed that these stations were cotemporaneous; they could but corre-
spond to successive periods of development, having each its distinctive character.
Hence, as in the north, three epochs were distinguished: the age of stone, the
age of bronze, and the age of iron.t The lake of Neuchatel has the preroga-
tive, among all the lakes of Switzerland, of comprising stations of the three
ages, thus enabling us to follow, within a circumscribed space, the development
of humanity during the remote epochs which preceded historic times.
1 AIG EOS OWN fa
The stations of the age of stone, though not as numerous as in eastern Swit-
zerland, are not wanting in the lake of Neuchatel. 'To the station of Concise,
which has yielded since 1859 a considerable quantity of utensils of silex and
bone, have been added several others, especially those of Neuchatel, Hauterive,
Cortaillod, Auvernier, Bevaix, Chez-le-Bart, Corcelles, Estavayer, Chevroux,
Cudrefin, and at Lake Morat, Greng.
These stations have with us a particular stamp, which admits of their being
easily recognized. ‘They are, in general, less extensive than those of the age of
bronze ;{ not so distant from the shore, nor so deep, being at a depth not exceeding
two metres below the mean level of the water. But what chiefly distinguishes
them is the quality of the piles, which are much larger than those of the stations
of bronze, consisting frequently of entire trunks of 25 and 30 centimetres in di-
ameter. Instead of forming a projection in the water, they are level with the
bottom, so that, notwithstanding their size, some experience is requisite to dis-
tinguish them amidst the stones which surround them. These stones them-
selves constitute an important character of the epoch; it is evident, from a mere
inspection, that they have been heaped up by the agency of man. This is at-
tested as well by their distribution, which is always distinctly circumscribed,
while sand or mud prevails around, as by their variety in form and appearance—
some being rounded, others angular. The process employed was probably of
*Tt should be remembered that the ancient occupants of our own soil are not alone in their
preference of aquatic habitations. There are populations of the Pacific ocean among whom
this usage exists at the present day. The Indians of Venezuela construct their cabins pref-
erably on the water, as a refuge from the flies, and we are told by Herodotus that the an-
cient people of Thrace had the same custom. ‘* The Peonians of Lake Prasias,” says the
father of history, ‘‘ could not be subjugated by Megabysus. Their habitations are constructed |
in the following manner: Upon tall posts sunk in the lake they fix a scailolding which commu-
nicates with the shore by a single bridge. Each has his cabin with a trap-door opening
upon the lake, and lest their children should fall into the water through this aperture, they
tie them by the feet with a cord.’”? See also Hippocrates, Opera Omnia, Ed. Kuhn, I, p.
551: ‘* The riparians of Pharos,” says the father of medicine, ‘‘ lived in marshes, where
they inhabited houses of wood and of reeds above the water, traversing the river in pi-
rogues; their health suffered much from this kind of life.” ;
+This division into three distinct ages has been contested by M. de Hochstetter, who!
thinks that the difference should not be attributed to separate epochs, but to differences of
class. To this pretended cotemporaneity M. Keller (6th Report, p. 7) properly objects that
there is aseries of lacustrian constructions in which there exists not the least trace of bronze.
With us this is, indeed, most frequently the case.
{ The teneviére of Auvernier measures 80 metres in diameter; that of Hauterive is greater
and of less regular outline.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 353
the simplest kind; the stones were collected on the shore and transported to
the designated place by means of pirogues or hollowed trees.* There they
were heaped around large posts which were placed upright, and were simply
secured in place by this coacervation. ‘The result is observed at all the stations
of stone in our lake, in the formation of prominences or small hillocks, which
are designated on the southern shores by the name of ¢eneviéres,t at Courtaillod
by that of pervoust, while at the lake of Bienne they are denominated stein-
berge, signifying mountains of stone. This mode of construction was the ouly
one practicable wherever the soil is of rock, asis the case at anumber of points on
the southern shore of the lake, at Monruz, Hauterive, Neuchatel, where the
banks of urgonian limestone approach so near the surface that it is impossible
to drive piles.§ Elsewhere, if the bottom was of ooze, as is especially the case
in eastern Switzerland, it sufficed to sink the posts in the ground itself without
the support of stones. In this case there is no steznberg, in the proper accepta-
tion of the word; but the stations are not less distinguishable from their slight
depth and proximity to the shore, which is the cause of their being sometimes
left dry at low water, as was the case in 1863 at Markelfingen, on Lake Constance.
The two stations of the small lake of Moosseedorf, where M. Uhlmann has
gathered so ample a harvest of curious objects of the age of stone, show the same
state of things; as the soil was favorable, the piles, after being pointed, were
simply driven into it. Recent explorations have just disclosed the same thing
at the Lake of Morat. Count de Pourtalés having proposed to form an island in
front of his park of Greng, it was quite natural to select, as a nucleus, the point
where the water was of least depth. This was the summit of a spacious tene-
viere, which occupies, it seems, a surface of several arpents, since, in excavating
around the space reserved for the isle, there are still found numbers of piles.
These are cut to a point, and sunk in the bottom of the lake, which consists of
very fine sand. Here also a passage of deeper water separates the place occupied
by piles from the shore; while the piles which are withdrawn present distinct
traces of blows made with the hatchet.
Here an objection will scarcely fail to occur; if the tenevieres trace their origin
to the age of stone, when not only iron but even bronze was unknown, and only
knives and hatchets of stone could be used, how was it possible, with such
implements, to cut trees a foot in diameter, even supposing’ the concomitant
action of fire to have been employed, as is done by many savage tribes. We
will not deny that, at first, this difficulty occasioned us no little embarrassment.
But having examined attentively and separately the tops of the piles in many
tenevieres, we remarked a peculiarity, which seems to us capable of solving the
difficulty. ‘The piles are not cut squarely, but around their circumference (to a
depth of 8 or 12 centimetres;) the centre, on the other hand, is often unequal,
sometimes protruding, sometimes re-entering, having the appearance, therefore,
of a post which had been notched circularly, and then broken. But as soon as
* There are a number of these pirogues in the lake of Bienne. One of them, near isle
Saint Pierre, is still loaded with stones, which has led to the supposition that it had found-
ered with its cargo. Another has been recently taken from the lake, and forms part of the
collection of Neuchatel. We have ourselves taken one from the station of Auvernier; it is
formed from the trunk of an oak, the wood of which is decomposed to the depth of five or
six inches; but the centre is only so much the harder and completely black, insomuch that
it might serve for material to the carpenter.
t In the idiom of the fishermen of Estavayer, this word signifies a submerged hillock—a
site where the water is quite shallow.
This name is also given to heaps of stone on terra firma, when they are of large dimen-
sions; the smaller are called morgiers.
§ Several of these steinbergs continued to be inhabited or used during the following
ages —among others, the steinberg of Nidau, where are found at the same time remains of the
age of stone, of bronze, and of iron. These results are corroborated by very recent researches
which we have made in the lakes of Bavaria. The isle of Roses, in Lake Starnberg, appears
to be nothing but an artificial island of those remote epochs, which has never ceased to be
inhabited during all succeeding periods, and is at this day the site of a regal habitation.
23.5
304 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
‘the question is found to relate merely to incisions of some inches, there can be
nothing improbable in their having been effected by means of sharpened silex,
as, indeed, we have satisfied ourselves by experiment. By means of this same
process, even bodies much harder were successfully dealt with, such as the large
horns of the stag, which they cut into handles.* Indeed, hard stones are found
to have been cut, while here and there oceur other stones which have been
attempted, but not completely divided.
Figure 1 represents a section of one of these tenevieres on a.rocky bottom,
KOHN
AWN
Ny
WN
Figure 1.
that, namely, of Hauteville, near Neuchatel. The space which separates it
from the shore reaches a depth of nearly two metres. while the summit of the
teneviere is at a depth of barely 0.50 at mean water.
The tenevieres, especially those of our lake, do not in themselves necessarily
suppose habitations constructed on the water. Their proximity to the shore,
their structure and inconsiderable depth, comport perhaps better with the idea
that they were artificial islands, like the crannoges of Treland,t which would
also explain their nearly uniform depression. On this hypothesis it would be
necessary to suppose that, at the epoch of their construction, the lake was lower
than at present, by the distance which separates their level from that of high
water—that is, about two metres. Ulterior researches will perhaps teach us
whether the idea of a depression of the water within these limits can be justified -
in a geological point of view. Such islands would have afforded a secure retreat
against all sorts of dangers. Perhaps, also, assemblages might have gathered
there for certain festivals or entertainments, which would account for the prodi-
gious quantity of bones accumulated at such stations, while they are more rare
in those of the bronze period. t
The station of Concise.has furnished more remains of animal bones than all
the stations of bronze united.§ The following have been identified up to this
time at the different stations of the age of stone in Switzerland: the bear, the
* Knives of silex are so efficacious for working in wood and bone that M. Lartet, our
eminent paleontologist, has assured us that he preferred them to knives of metal for a multi-
tude of uses.
t Ferd. Keller, Deuxieme rapport sur les constructions lacustres, in the Mitthetlungen der
antiquarischen Gesellschaft.
{ This opinion, which is held also by M. de Hochstetter, has been recently controverted by
our friend M. F. Keller, (Sixth Report, p. 4,) upon the ground of the regular distribution of
the palafittes in eastern Switzerland, where each palafitte is divided into compartments
containing the necessary space for a family, a fireplace, utensils for cooking, a frame
for weaying,a store of thread. Further, it seems to result from the researches of M.
Heer, that cattle also were kept there, as well as stores of provender for winter. If this be
so, we should feel the less difficulty in doing justice to the arguments of our learned friend,
as our exceptions bore rather on the palafittes of the age of bronze and of iron, than those of
stone.
§ M. Schwab objects, in regard to the greater quantity of bones of the station of Concise
and the palafittes of the age of stone in general, that it is in these alone that extensive
researches have yet been made, and he surmises that if the stations of the age of bronze were
alequately dredged, bones would present themselves in equal number. We shall await,
therefore, the results of experience. :
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 355
badger, the martin, the ermine, the otter, the polecat, the wolf, the fox, the dog,
the cat, the hedgehog, the beaver, the squirrel, the horse, the hog, the wild boar,
the elk, the stag, the roe, the fallow deer, the sheep, the bison, the urus, the
goat, and a quantity of remains of the domestic ox. These, it will be seen,
embrace for the most part the same animals which, where the chase has not
destroyed them, still inhabit the forests of Europe. Among the cows M. Ruti-
meyer distinguishes two varieties, a very large and a small one, which is the
stock of the domestic animal. The same author distinguishes, besides the
‘domestic hog and the wild boar, a third variety, the hog of the fens (Sus palustris,)
whose remains are especially found in great abundance in the palafittes of the
age of stone in east Switzerland. ‘This species, which was smaller than the
two preceding, has shared the fate of the urus, (which should not be con-
founded with the bison of Lithuania,) having been lost in the course of ages. It
is not probable that this animal was domesticated, nor, consequently, that it is.
the stock of our present hog, which descends rather from the wild boar.
The stations of stone in our lake have not yet furnished a human skeleton.
We possess, in Switzerland, but a single skull of that epoch, derived from the
station of Meilen on the lake of Zurich, and this, unfortunately, is not complete.
It results, however, from the researches of MM. Rutimeyer and His,* that the
skull in question occupies in some sort a mean between the long and short heads,
(the ratio of breadth to length being as 83 to 100,) approximating in this re-
spect to the type most common in Switzerland. It does not differ sensibly
from the skulls of the station of bronze of Auvernier, of which notice will be:
taken further on; and being, like one of the latter, the skull of an infant, there is:
room to suppose that the characteristic traits of the race had not yet acquired,
their definitive expression.
It is difficult to form an idea of the state of culture of the tribes of the age
of stone. To judge of them only by their arms and utensils, they could
searcely have been more advanced than the savages of the isles of Sunda or of
the Pacific ocean, since only silex and bone were at their disposal; but it ean-
not be denied, on the other hand, that they had put these materials to singular
rofit. Such, at least, is the impression derived from an examination of the col-
Jections which have been made from Lake Neuchatel; as, for example, that of
the museum and of M. Schwab, but above all, that of Dr. Clement at St. Aubin.
The distinction between arms and utensils was probably not very rigid, and it
is possible, nay, probable, that some utensil which served to cultivate the soil
or cut the posts for a cabin, were, on occasion, employed also as an offensive
and defensive weapon, as hatchets, hammers, &e.
The arms properly so called are: lances of silex, which are sometimes sev-
eral decimetres in length. Most of them are elaborated with extraordinary
eare, which evinces great dexterity in the art of cutting stone; all present on’
one side a slightly curved surface, which is the natural fracture as detached
from the nucleus, and on the other a median longitudinal carina (Fig. 2;) some
have a sort of tongue or neck (Fig. 3) which probably penetrated into the staff.
In some rare cases an exceptional finish was bestowed on the lance by means
of small transverse fractures of singular regularity. Of this Fig. 3a is a striking
example.
The arrows are triangular, (Fig. 4,) frequently provided with barbs, which
rendered them more formidable. ‘Traces are sometimes observed of the cement
which united them to the stock. ‘There were also points of arrows of bone,
* Crania Helvetica, p. 35. Some fragments of a skull have just been discovered in the
midst of a quantity of animal remains, at the station of Greng, on Lake Morat; they are in
the possession of Count G. de Portales.
306 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
but these are much rarer; the museum of Neuchatel possesses one from Concise
(Fig. 7) of very peculiar form; others were fitted to the stick and secured by
al
a
wi
( Wy
4) bal! (
i aif a f
f Ht
ie
~~
nana
‘
;
:
‘
a Reale w,
‘,
od
~
‘ 5 ts
Figure 2. Figure 3.
Figure 7a.
impression of the stick and the thread which fastened it; others still are serrated,
or furnished with a small lateral hook, similar to a diminutive harpoon.
The bow for these arrows was of yew; they have been found in good preser-
vation at the station of Kobenhausen and at Lake Constance. Our own lake has
as yet yielded only fragments.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 357
Another weapon, more ape and at the same time more formidable, is the
horn of astag converted
into a club by retaining
the brow antler, while
the rest are removed.
A club of this kind is
in our possession, de-
rived from the tene-
viere of Auvernier, and
must have belonged to
a truly colossal animal.
That of which we here
give a sketch, (Fig. 74,)
forms part of the col-
lection of Dr. Clement,
and measures fifty cen-
timetres in length.
With such an instru-
ment we can conceive
that terrible blows
might be inflicted. We
have in our collection a
skull pierced with a
round hole in the hind-
er part of the left parie-
tal, which may well
have been made with a
club of this description.
The horns of the stag
were also employed for
different utensils, as,
for example, hammers,
sixteen of which have
been found in the single
palafitte of Nussdorf at
Lake Ueberlingen.
There occur also hateh-
ets of this material as
well as clubs, pins, and
even combs, (Keller, '
6th Report, p. 280.) In
Figure 6a.
Figure 7c.
Figure 7b.
the collection of Dr. Clement, we also mect with fish-hooks of stag’s horn, com-
posed of a straight stem with a lateral branch or barb, (Fig. lla.) Sometimes
Figure 11a.
again these instruments were formed of the tusk of the wild boar by crossing it,
a remarkable specimen of which may be seen in the collection of Dr. Uhlmann.
The olecrane of the stag was sometimes carved into a poinard.
The long bones of certain animals (of the cow, the hog) are also often cut in
358 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
the form of pointed instruments (Figs. 8, 9) which might have served for pon-
iards, lances, or pikes; others are in the form of chisels (Fig. 10) or of pins for
the hair, (Fig. 11.) The flakes of silex were employed by way of a knife or
eH
Figure 9. Figure 10. Figure it?
Figure 7.
saw ; we find many inserted in a fragment of horn, which were probably used in
felling trees or cutting their branches, (Fig. 12.)
Figure 12.
If these utensils cannot rival those of the age of stone in the north of Europe,
if we possess none of those poniards artistically wrought which occur in the
collections of Denmark and Meckienburg, nor those elegantly formed knives of
silex which recall the finest produced by the age of bronze, it is not the less
true that we can realize a degree of emulation as having existed at this remote
epoch between the inhabitants of different stations. The objects collected in
the lakes of western Switzerland display something of finish, of care in the de-
tails, which is not to be recognized to the same degree in the stations of eastern
Switzerland. This observation is particularly suggested by the symmetry and
pleasing forms of certain objects which would have been equally as efficient
without being so finished. ‘The hammers are the articles of most elegance ;
they are always formed of hard stone, generally of serpentine, enlarged in the
middle in order that the hole destined to receive the handle may not render
them too fragile; one of the extremities is rounded or plane—the other con-
tracted more or less to an edge, and sometimes toa point. The hole itself is
often irregular, being narrowed within, as an aperture would be if alternately
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 359
pierced from both faces, (see disk of Fig. 21.) In every instance the hole is
smooth throughout and very little contracted, nor is it unusual to meet with the
core or lump which corresponds to the cavity. The patienee, perseverance, and
skill required to execute the perforation of such an object cannot but occasion
surprise, especially when performed without the help of metal. It was perhaps
effected by means of very thin flakes of silex fixed around a stock which was
made to turn in such a way as to separate a portion of the stone which, when
the perforation was accomplished, would fall to the ground.* Precaution was
observed to enlarge the hammer at the place where the hole for receiving the
handle was situated, yet accidents would still occur, as is testified by the frag-
ments of those broken in the operation which are much more numerous than en-
tire ones. It might be that the instrument of perforation was fixed, and the
hammer itself made to revolve, as with our stationary graving implements.
Figures 13 and 14 represent a specimen in our collection. Like others of the
Figure 13.
same type, it is perfectly unworn, which would seem to indicate that it was
rather a symbol of command than a weapon. We have seen one, however, in
the collection of Dr. Clement, which bears distinct traces of use.
*It would be more simple to suppose that the piercing was effected by means of a cylin-
‘der or hollow tube. But this would imply the use of metal, and would assign our hammers
to the age of bronze, while as yet we know them as only pertaining to the age of stone. A
discovery has just been made of some very fine ones in the palafitte of Greng, on Lake Morat,
where there exists not a trace of metal. M. Lachmann mentions not less than fifty of them
at the station of Nussdorf, (see Keller, 6th Report, p. 217,) which pertains to the age of
stone, though it is true that some have been found in the palafitte of Unteruhdingen which
is of the age of bronze. From the researches of M. Ley we learn that at the station of
Bodman (small lake of Constance) the hammer hatchets are limited to the upper archzeologi-
cal stratum, while they are wanting in the lower; whence the.author feels authorized to claim
for these primitive tribes a progress in civilization during the period of stone.
360 PALAFIITES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
Neither are hatchets rare; we possess them by dozens. A hard stone was
chosen, preferably an erratic pebble of diorite, serpentine, quartzite, or saussu-
rite,* to which they managed to give an edge, (Fig. 15.) This was after-
wards introduced into a socket made of buck-horn, which was itself cut in such
a manner as to adopt itself to a handle of wood, (Fig. 16.) The sockets are quite
frequently met with in certain localities, among others at Concise, but it is
rare to find the two, (the hatchet in its socket,) and still more rare to possess
the complete instrument, (hatchet, socket, and handle.) Dr. Clement has one of
Figure 15. Figure 16.
the most complete specimens in existence, (Fig. 17;) it was derived from Con-
cise. At other times the stone was inserted at the extremity of a portion of
Figure 17.
buck-horn, which was pierced with a hole to receive a handle. The hatchet was
supported against this handle, which prevented the wood from splintering. This
instrument, which served at once as hatchet and hammer, (Fig. 18,) ranked, but
a few months since, among the rare objects of our tenevieres. Now, thanks to
the persistent researches of Dr. Clement, several dozens are known, represent-
ing the utensil in every state, from the rude outline to the complete instrument.
At other times the hatchet is found simply attached to the extremity of a stag’s
antler; we know, however, but one specimen, being that in the collection of Dr.
Clement, which is here represented. Along with the hatchets are found other
= Asis justly remarked by M. Demour, it is impossible not to be struck by the sagacity
with which these ancient people selected materials which, with the exception of the metals,
unite in the highest degree the three properties of density, hardness, and tenacity, conditions
essential to the use and duration of these implements. (Comptes Rendus, August, 1865.)
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 361
stones cut smaller, fixed in simple fragments of buck-horn, and serving rather
for chisels or paring-knives than for hatchets, properly so called. That repre-
Figure 18.
Figure 18a.
sented by figure 19 is of transparent nephrite of a fine leek-green color; it forms
part of the collection of Dr. Clement, a
at Saint Aubin. Most of these singu-
lar stones are set in the same manner.
*It is a characteristic distinction be-
tween our hatchets of the age of stone
and those of anterior ages that the Figure 19.
former are always worn down by sharpening on the grindstone, so as to present
a very regular edge, which is never the case with the hatchets of Abbeville, of
the caverns, nor those of the Kjockkenmeedings of Denmark, which are simply
cut by chopping.
Apart from these utensils, which are common to almost all savage tribes, we
recognize, among our lacustrians of the age of stone, the beginnings of an art
which attests the dawn of civilization. They manufactured pottery, somewhat
shapeless and rude it is true, but which is not the less interesting, as well for
its composition as its form and dimensions. It consists for the most part of
large protuberant vessels, fashioned with the hand, the wheel of the potter being
not yetknown. The paste of which it is composed is but slightly homogeneous,
*Tt has been recently remarked that, in general, none but small hatchets of stone are
found provided with handles, which would seem to warrant the conclusion that the largest,
some of which weigh as much as two pounds, were not used with handles, but immediately
with the hand. (Lachmann, 6th report of Dr. Keller, p. 277.)
362 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
gray or black, never red, and always intermixed with small siliceous pebbles,
doubtless to guard against the defects of unequal and imperfect baking.
Tn default of silex they also employed limestone, and sometimes fragments
of shell, or even charcoal. ‘The large vases are protuberant, the small ones
cylindrical, more or less contracted or rounded towards the base, but without
being-conical like those of the age of bronze; hence the earthen supports or
rings, which, in that period, were used to keep the vessels upright, do not as yet
occur in this. It is not unusual to distinguish marks of the fingers, especially
at the base, (Fig. 194.) Others are furnished with a sort of handle or rude
projection intended to facilitate the handling or carriage, (Fig. 19a ;) this lat-
Figure 190.
ter israrer. In the specimen given the impression of the fingers of the potter
may be recognized. With regard to the black color, it was obtained perhaps
by smoking, or, as is more probable, by introducing grease into the paste, as is
done, we are told, by the potters of Peru.
: oe The prints of the fingers are very small, which would
seem to indicate a race of diminutive size, unless we are
3 tosuppose them to have been made by women, and we
2-4 know that among certain tribes, (the Kabyles, for instance)
=== it is the women who manufacture the pottery. From
SS
S === time to time vessels are met with composed of a paste
: eless coarse and exhibiting rudiments of ornamentation,
(Fig. 20.)
There is sufficient reason for supposing that these jars
served, like those of the age of bronze, for the preserva-
SaaS tion of food. Along with those earthen vessels occur
Figure 20. others, not less interesting and more characteristic, con-
structed out of the horns of the stag. They hollowed the horn at the place of
its insertion, where it becomes enlarged, and formed of it small and not ungrace-
ful vessels, usually pierced with a hole on one side; of these, several specimens,
derived from the lakes of Neuchatel and Moossedorf, are known to us; we se-
lect for representation that from the collection of Dr. Clement, (Fig. 20a.)
, , This savant has discovered at Concise an-
%' other small vase, made from a piece of stag’s
horn, but of different form, and thus far
unique in its kind. It is cylindrical, with
two small handles, doubtless intended for
the passage of a strap for suspension.
A certain number of utensils are scattered
on the surface of the tenevieres, such as
hatchets, lances, hammers, sometimes also fragments of coarse pottery, which
Ficure 19a.
Figure 20a
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 363
are then covered with a tufaceous incrustation formed by the perennial deposit
of the lake.* Most of the objects, however, are buried in the soil, and to ob-
tain them it is necessary to dig and dredge in the teneviere. It is thus that
Dr. Clement proceeds, in order to collect the varied objects with which he every
day enriches his admirable collection.
These objects are not dispersed at hazard in the interior of the teneviere.
They are found preferably at a depth of from 14 to 2 feet, intermingled with
fragments of cut wood, bits of charcoal and bones of animals, which -constitute
a kind of repository, like those of fossils in geological formations. This is the
archeological stratum. It is not unusual to encounter several of these strata or
repositories in the same teneviere. Dr. Clement has recognized two very dis-
tinct ones in the teneviere of St. Aubin, while it appears that M. Messikom-
mer has distinguished even three at Kobenhausen. (See 6th Report of M.
Keller, p. 247, for a profile of this station.)
Stones for grinding, (commonly known as mills,) which occur in considerable
numbers in the tenevieres, many having a diameter of 60 centimetres, indicate
‘that the grain was triturated with the help of rounded pestles. ‘These last, as
well as the mill-stones, were of granite or grit, never of limestone. It was
scarcely to have been expected that we should have discovered the products of
this primitive contrivance ; nor have the stations of our lake furnished anything
of the kind. But it is otherwise in eastern Switzerland, where have been
found the remains of the bread eaten by our predecessors, and which have
been preserved by carbonization.
In all likelihood some traffic was carried on with the neighboring countries,
especially with those situated on the borders of Jura, whence doubtless the
silex was derived. In the stations of eastern Switzerland it is usual to cite, as
‘proof of a local commerce, the presence at Kobenhausen of micaceous. schists,
of parti-colored grit of Rheinfelden, of erystals of the Alps, of asphaltum of
Valde Travers, of white marble of Spliigen, &c. M. Keller even describes and
delineates a small vase of asphaltum found at Kobenhausen. (6th Report, p.
251.) But we cannot share the opinion which attributes extensive commercial
relations to the tribes of the age of stone. In support of this opinion are cited
the hatchets of nephrite, of which numbers are found at Concise and other
stations of that epoch; and as this stone now comes to us from the east, it has
been inferred that the tribes of the remote period in question trafficked with
Asia. But it should be remembered that the greater part of the hatchets which
are assumed to be nephrite may very well be only varieties of indigenous rocks,
proceeding from siliceous veins in the serpentine, and whose depository might
be found, according to M. de Mortillet, in the higher Maurienne.f It seems to
us very difficult to admit that so distant a commerce should have been restricted
to the exchange of certhin stones which, after all, are not very superior to com-
mon silex, while the east might have furnished objects of far greater utility,
particularly metals.
It is proper, however, to mention here a recent communication of M. de Fel-
lenberg to the Society of Natural Sciences of Berne,t in which that accom-
plished chemist gives an account of a series of analyses which he has made of
five fragments of nephrite from the lakes of Switzerland, three of which are
* There is some interest in regard to authenticity in not removing this crust, even where
it impairs the beauty of the object.
+ Materiaux pour Uhistoire positive et philosophique de Uhomme, 1865, p. 231.—M. Nau-
man (Elements de Mineralogie, p. 305) mentions nephrite as occurring among the erratic
blocks of Saxony, (Schwemsal near Duben, ) which are known to have proceeded trom Scan-
dinavia.
t Mitteilungen der Bern. naturforschenden Gesellschaft, 1865.
364 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
from Meilen, on Lake Zurich ; one from Moosseedorf, in the canton of Berne;
and one from Concise, on Lake Neuchatel, with the following results :
No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5.
SUNG GIG IEA. SE ee ee 57.10 56.50 56.90 58.89 56.14
MMINen soe cowelie Ble eb ees eas igs aes Per 22.40 0.48
LD GE Sea eae Be ysesen becodecoscoay 20.60 20.09 20.37 1.28 22.68
WM © joc osc besce ed csee SC eee Sec 12.76 13.27 12°94 3} 112 11.12
@xidulated iron... ~- > +. eee see eee ees = 6.30 6.75 7.05 1.66 4.66
WAGs) Gooe Sato Seoosae Bose 0.05 0.42 0.67 aac 1,13
Oxide: (of izinc. 3). eee eee eases wae a Se age ae ees OS
S00: eS eo ek ae eee oe oh aes asec 12.86 ees
POLASSIUIN: 02 5= specie omens See e as seeieer Seen Ch ange Atel 0.49 fae
WA ter eee aon cco chem eeee tice cite a6 wiccecma 3.25 3.50 2.80 0.20 BYP
100.66 100.53 100.74 101.63 99.93
It follows that four of these fragments, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 5, have nearly the
same composition; while No. 4, from Moosseedorf, would correspond to the
green jade or jadeite of M. Damour. It would represent a new bi-silicate in
the group of feldspaths, or alkaline silicate of aluminum, resembling in many
respects oligoclas. On the other hand, the four identical fragments agree in a
striking manner with the analyses which M. Scheerer* has made of the true
oriental nephrite, and especially with his analysis No. 7, which yielded him:
Silic acid, 57.10; alumine, 0.72; magnesia, 23.29; lime, 13.48; oxide iron,
3.39; oxide mangan., 0; water, 2.50.
M. de Fellenberg thinks that, in view of this remarkable correspondence,
and to the extent that chemical composition can be made subservient to ethno-
graphy, it must be admitted that the hatchets of Meilen and Concise are of the
true nephrite, while that of Moosseedorf is the green oriental jade. “It might,
indeed,” adds M. de Fellenberg, “be asked whether the nephrites of our lacus-
trian stations be not of Alpine origin, like the serpentine hatchets which accom-
pany them, since we find in the Grisons and in Valais the same masses of ser-
pentine talcose and chloritic schists which in New Zealand accompany the true
nephrites, and of which these last are but emanations, (by segregation.) But
as yet the facts have not confirmed this hypothesis, so that, until proof of the
contrary, the hypothesis of the oriental origin of the nephrite appears the most
just and probable.”
Without making pretensions to combat deductions drawn from investigations
so precise-and conscientious as those of M. de Fellenberg, we cannot help observ-
ing that if the Asiatic origin of nephrite in itself presents difficulties, by attrib-
uting to the tribes of the age of stone commercial relations with India, Persia,
or Arabia, these difficulties appear to us still greater, if not, indeed, insurmount-
able, when the question concerns the pursuit of this nephrite in China, New
Zealand, or New Caledonia As regards the fragments of white coral which
have been found at Concise, they might well pertain, like the fragment of amber
at Meilen, to the age of bronze, some vestiges of which exist in each of these
stations.
* Rammelsberg, Mineralchemie, p. 777, note. The green jade should not be confounded
with saussurite, which, according to M. Damour, presents the following composition: Si-
lex, 0.5069; alumine, 0.2565; oxide of iron, 0.6250; lime, 0.1061; manganese, 0.0576 ; soda,
0.0464, - The chief difference consists in the much less considerable quantity of soda. (Let-
ter of M. Damour to Dr. Clement.)
tit is from New Caledonia that proceed the beautiful translucid nephrites, of a delicate
green color, which form an ornament of the museum of Montpelier. As we go to press, the
Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences of Paris (25th and 28th August, 1861) bring us,
on this much-controverted question, a remarkable memoir of M. Damour ‘‘ On the composi-
tion of the hatchets of stone found in Celtic monuments and among savage tribes,” (Comptes
Rendus, 'T. LXI,) which we cannot but commend to the attention of our readers.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 365
Meanwhile, the tribes of the age of stone were not reduced to the sole eare
of providing for their existence. However mean might be their arms and uten-
sils, the requirements of personal decoration were not wholly neglected, as is
attested by certain ornaments made of stone or of bone. These could of course
be but very simple, being the teeth of carniverous animals pierced with a hole,
and worn, doubtless, in the manner ,
of a collar, intermingled with disks : Re iiecp
or beads of bone or buckhorn sim-
ilarly pierced, (Fig. 20.) Pins for {
the hair occur, not deficient in a fiw
certain degree of’elegance, nor dif- pv),
fering much from those worn at {J
present, as is witnessed by that Nee \
represented above, and which comes We
from the station of Concise, (Fig.
11.) At other times, a pin was
cut from the rib of a stag or roe,
which, besides the head, had a pro-
tuberance pierced with an eye.
(Fig. 208.) Figure 20.
Lastly, domestic industry is attested by a quantity of small disks pierced
with a hole, which we believe to have been spindle whirls rather than weights
for fishing nets. (Fig. 21.) However this may be, it is not superfluous to re-
mark that at the lake of ,« 9
Neuchatel these disks &
are always of stone
(preferably of molassic
sandstone; sometimes
of limestone) in the sta- Figure 206.
tions of the age of stone, while they are of baked earth in the palafittes of the
age of bronze.* (Fig. 21.)
If the tenevieres of our lake and of western Switzerland have not yet afforded
a specimen of the thread which was spun by means of these whirls, such is not
the case with the canton of Zurich, where are found not only skeins of thread,
but numerous remains of webs, tissues, and nefs, all of flax. It does not appear
that wool was ever spun.
Nor was the ground left uncultivated in the age of stone, as is attested by the
remains of cereals which are found here and there in our tenevieres. M. Gilli-
eron has collected in the archeological stratum of the Pont de Thielle very fine
grains of wheat, carbonized like the peat which surrounds them. ‘The stations
of eastern Switzerland, and especially that of Robenhausen, on Lake Pfeefikon,
are in this respect of the highest interest. ‘The conditions are here so favorable
to the preservation of vegetable products that it has been practicable to make
ample collections of fruits of all kinds—apples, cherries, beech nuts, seeds »
of the strawberry and raspberry, and large quantities of the water chestnut,
( Trapa natans,) which must have been common in the lakes, while at present
it is found only at two points north of the Alps—near Langenthal and Elgg.
In the bread found there the grain is but imperfectly crushed, as in the pum-
pernickel of Westphalia, so that it is possible to recognize the species of cereal
of which it is composed. The bread of Robenhausen is of wheat. Of late
that of millet has been also discovered. All these vegetable remains have been
*Quite recently Dr. Ullersberger has collected some of these disks in baked earth at the
station of stone, at Ueberlingen, on Lake Constance, but their shape is different from that
of the age of bronze; they are true disks, slightly convex, while those of the age of bronze
are conic.
366 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
recently described in a remarkable treatise by Professor O. Heer, (Die Pflan-
zen der Pfahlbauten, Zurich, 1865,) to which we would refer our readers, ex-
tracting from it only the annexed group, which represents different species of
cereals cultivated in the age of stone. (Fig. 21a.) .
If thus skilled in the art of cultivating cereals, the possession by the inhabit-
ants of implements of til-
lage follows by necessary
implication; and it is from
the station of Robenhausen
again that the first revela-
tion in this respect might
have been anticipated. M..
Keller, in effect, has just
given us the description, ac-
companied by a design, of
an instrument formed of a
portion of a stag’s horn,
fixed in a handle of wood,
and so cut as to serve for a
mattock on one side and a
hook on the other, (Ferd.
Keller, 6th Report, page
249,) while the same ten-
eviere has yielded other
implements of husbandry,
made of maple wood, and
remarkable for their execu-
tion when we consider the
tools of that epoch, (Keller,
6th Report, page 249.) All
this implies conditions very
different from those of the
populations of the age of the reindeer, who were only hunters, or of those of the
kékkenmédings of Denmark, who lived upon shell-fish collected on the sea shore.
The inhabitants of our tenevieres had fixed habitations and much cattle. They
made provision for winter; they took thought for their raiment and had regard
to their toilet; they were expert in the art of spinning and weaving. They
were no longer, therefore, in the savage state.
Let us remember, in the last place, that, according to the latest researches,
the tenevieres often comprise several archeological strata, superposed and sepa-
rated by deposits of peat, &c., which attain even a metre in depth (at Roben-
hausen.) It may be possible, some day, through a close study of these depos-
its, to estimate the duration of such intervals. We know with certainty that it
must have been very long. It was not time, then, which was wanting to the
tribes of the age of stone in order to arrive at the degree of civilization, humble
no doubt, but yet remarkable, which is attested by the remains of their industry
and culture.
——_
Yi
(jl
tip ZZ Ly
4, BEBE
8 Z Zs Gy GEE
Figure 2ia.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 367
Il.—AGE OF BRONZE.
There exists a notable difference between the palafittes of the age of stone and
those of the age of bronze. The latter, which are at once more extensive* and
more numerous, are found at a greater distance from the shore; their depth is con-
sequently more considerable, generally from 3 to 5 metres below mean water.
This is observable at the lake of Constance as well as our own. In a letter of M.
A. Senoner to M. G. de Mortillet it issaid: «There is a great difference between
the stations of stone and those of metal; the former approach the shore more
or less nearly, while the latter are distant from it about 330™.” Sometimes they
are very near the tenevieres, being separated by a space of only a few metres,
as for instance at Auvernier. ‘The piles are more slender, frequently trees cleft
in four parts, scarcely exceeding 12 to 15 centimetres in diameter; instead of
being on a level with the bottom, they rise from 30 to 60 centimetres above it,
which allows of their being easily recognized, notwithstanding their greater
depth. As they are simply sunk in the ground, they may be occasionally
withdrawn, when the wood is not too much decayed. Their number is so con-
siderable that at some stations they may be counted by thousands, now grouped
by six, ten, or twenty, now arranged in several rows which seem to tend to-
wards the shore, thus affording a proof that the question really regards con-
structions on pile-work elevated above the water and communicating with the
shore by avenues or foot-bridges, and that these are no artificial islands, as the
tenevieres or steinbergs of the age of stone might possibly be.
It is in the intervals of the piles that we find the utensils, arms and habili-
ments of every sort which characterize this epoch, as well as the earthen ves-
sels, of which there existed of old large deposits at certain stations, among
others at Auvernier.t This pottery, although prepared in the same manner with
that of the preceding age, without the help of the wheel, is distinguished by a
much greater variety of form and outline. Like that, too, it is black, and it is
only exceptionally that the surface is brown or red, tending to show that the
baking was not conducted in furnaces but inthe open air.{ If the paste of the
: large vessels is still coarse and 5 ‘
characterized by the same mix- *
ture of small siliceous pebbles,
it is not so with that of the
small ones, which is fine, ho-
mogeneous, and often coated
with a glaze of graphite. We
_ are struck at the same time
yp» with the elegance of form and
7 fine proportions of these ves- =
sels, (Figs. 22, 23.) It is not Figure 23,
unusual to meet with rudi-
ments of design, described with a point, which rep-
resent sometimes chevrons or small triangles, some-
times simple rows or points traced around the neck
Figure 22, or handle, (Figs. 24, 25, 30.) Most of the vases
* It is not easy to assign the extent of these palafittes on account of their border being often
very sinuous. Some comprise a surface of several hectares, especially those on the southern
shore of Lake Neuchatel. That of Auvernier is estimated to contain some 50 ares.
+ An aged fisherman has told us that, when a child, ‘‘he.sometimes amused himself by
Eine, with a long pole, at these old pots; that there were great heaps, real mountains
of them.”
t According to Brogniart, Traité des Arts céramiques, p. 487, this mode of fabrication
still exists in certain parts of France. The pottery is fashioned by the hand, after which it
is baked in the open air by means of the flame of heaps of fern which surround it.
368 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
DR
L/W
Figure 26¢. Figure 30,
have a conical base, so that to keep them upright it would be necessary to sink
them in the sand or earth, or to place them in circles or rings of baked earth de-
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 369
signed for this use, (Fig. 26*) Even the large vessels of coarse paste are not
destitute of ornament; they frequently have the
neck encireled by a kind of twisted belt which must
have been adapted to the hand, for the trace of fin-
gers is still discernible on it, (Fig. 27.t) Porringers
are also found (Figs. 28, and 29,) as well as dishes, and
vessels pierced with small holes, evidently intended
for draining liquid substances and serving pores
for the manufacture of cheese, (Fig. 31.) The spin-
dle whirls are very numerous and often artistically ,
fashioned with a hole in the middle; they are no fs
longer of stone, as in the preceding epoch, but of ¥
baked earth, (Figs. 32 and33.) It is not difficult,
with a little practice, to distinguish the pottery of ,
the age of bronze from that of the age of stone, Figure 26.
which is always more shapeless. Hence it is that, from our first researches at
the lake of Bourget in 1861, we did not hesitate to refer this station to the
bronze period, although as yet no object in that metal had been met with. It
is not rare to find vessels still containing provisions, for the preservation of
which they were no doubt intended. From one of these we have obtained ap-
ar SSS db ee. e BS
Figure 28.
*It is probable, however, that this conic form was only applicable to vases of moderate or
small dimensions. The large vessels, though protuberant and narrowed towards the base,
have always a plane bottom; and, indeed, the earthen rings do not imply large vessels, none
of them, to our knowledge, exceeding 20 centimetres in diameter.
t In respect to the designs, these vessels recall in several features those found in the tu-
mular chambers of the dolmens of Bretagne, which have been described and figured by Dr.
Closmadene in the Revue Archeologique, 1864. In the dolmens, however, those conical
forms so characteristic of the age of bronze are not met with, nor the rings or circles des-
tined to support them.
2458
370 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
Figure 31. Figure 32.
ples, cherries, wild plums, and a quantity of hazel-nuts. At Anuvernier these
vessels do not form part of the great heap, but are found at other points of the
station. We may also mention here, as proper to the age of bronze, the lacus-
trian crescents of baked earth, which will claim our notice hereafter.
UTENSILS OF METAL.
The utensils of bronze are remarkable for their fine state of preservation in
all our palafittes. The hatchets are numerous, measuring from 12 to 20 centi-
metres, and weighing from 300 to 750 grammes. Most frequently they are per-
oT, mn fectly undamaged, without any trace of wear- sup,
ing, as if they had never been in use, though
marks of the hammering, by which the edge
was widened, are often visible. They are of
several types. Some have ears carved on
each side, in such a way as to present a
double socket intended to receive a forked
handle, which had probably an elbow. These
are the most frequent, and are often provided
witha small metallic loop, which served,doubt-
less, to suspend them to the girdle, (Fig. 34.)
Sometimes the two points of the upper ex-
tremity are bent round, so as to touch one
another, and to form a lunule, destined, doubt-
less, to receive a rivet which passed through
the handle; this peculiarity is presented only
by hatchets of a large dimension,* (Fig. 35.)
‘Nn A second type has only the rudiments of ears,
eae 34. but the edge is considerably enlarged. These
are rather paring-knives, managed with the hand, like those
of our curriers, than hatehets; perhaps they had not even a
handle. M. Morlot terms them knife-hatchets (cowteaux haches;)
with us they are quite rare, our lake, particularly, having as
yet furnished but few samples, one of which is here represented, Pi) 4
(Figs. 36 and 37.) M. Forel has collected many from the lake Pu)
of Geneva, at a particular station near Morges. Others, of a ish
somewhat different form, have been found in the fields and
forests of our vicinage. 'The sample of figure 38 is borrowed =
from the work of M. Troyon, and representsa specimen found _—‘ Figure 35,
al Mt Hh i i
* It is scarcely necessary to remark that the ears as well as the points must have been
straight at issuing from the mould, and been bent afterwards.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. Era
under the stone at Niton, towards the middle of the XVIIth eentury.* Others,
again, have a perfect socket, sometimes circular, sometimes square, with a loop
of suspension, (Fig. 39.) This form, very common in France, and to which is
Ann Sie A PR
Figure 37. Figure 38.
applied more specifically the name of ce/¢, is rare in our
palafittes, though, according to Nillson, one of the most
common in Scandinavia, ‘The specimen given comes
from the lake of Geneva. Lastly, there occurs in the
museum of Neuchatel a fourth type, represented by a §
single specimen. It has the ears broad and recurvated, §
but arranged in the plane of the edge, instead of being
perpendicular to it as in the true celts, (Figs. 40 @ and
406.) ‘This very rare form had not been observed hith- §
erto except in Ireland and Germany.f Knives are nu-
* The more rare these instruments with us, the more common
do they appear to be in Hungary, where they are found asso-
ciated with the hatchet, furnished with a socket, which is not less
abundant, especially that with a round socket.
t Kemble, Hore ferales, tab. 9; Lindenschmidt, Alterthtimer
unserer heidnischen Vorzeit. M.de Mortillet has lately noticed it
at the museum ef Vannes, derived, no doubt, from a dolmen.
M. Lachmann has also obtained a specimen from the palatfitte
of Unteruhldingen, on Lake Constance. In view of this variety
n of forms, all well characterized, of the same utensil, there might __
Figure 404. be room. perhaps, to make an application of the method used in Fig. 40 6.
mineralogy, and designate each type of hatchet by a proper name. If this suggestion be adopted
we would propose the following titles: The Keller hatchet for that of figure 34; the Schwab
for that of figure 35; the Morlot for that of figure 36; the Troyon for that of figure 40; the
Bertrand for that of figure 39; the l’Haridon for the same with a square socket ; the Mortil-
let for the small hatchet with a socket, which is very common in France, but not yet found
in our palafittes. The same method might be applied with advantage to the different types
of pins, vases, swords, &c. The small hatchet, which we have named after M. Mortillet, is
conjectured by that savant to have been asort of votive offering. The Commission of To-
pography of Gaules has just published a proposed classification of bronze hatchets, in which
not less than twenty-two types are distinguished ; the six forms, whose figures we have given,
representing therein as many distinct types. (Revue Archaologique, p. 58, pl. 1. \
Rbae PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
merous, generally small, but always elegant, the blade measuring in length
from 10 to 20 centimetres. Most are furnished with a tongue which entered
Figure 41. Figure 42. Figure 43. Figure 44.
a handle that has not been preserved, but must have been of wood or horn,
(Fig. 41, 42;) others havea handle of metal, (Fig. 43;) others, again, are pro-
vided with a socket, (Fig. 44.) Two types are distinguishable in the blades of
these knives: those which become gradually thicker from the edge to the back,
(Fig. 42,) like our ordinary knives, and those which have the back abruptly en-
larged. The latter served, doubtless, for a special use ; both one and the other
are frequently embellished with designs on the side and back.*
* From the fact that the original of figure 41 is covered with a fine patina, it might be in-
ferred that this specimen was not derived from a palafitte, but had been preserved in the
ground. In that case, it would pertain to the age of iron.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 373
In many stations of our lake, particularly at Auvernier and Cortaillod, reap-
ing hooks have been found in great number; they are small, the largest not
exceeding fifteen centimetres, measured lengthwise. But they are skilfully
elaborated, and usually strengthened by one or more concentric ribs. The stock
is scarcely narrower than the blade, and
so contrived as to adapt itself to a bandle
of wood or horn. Some evinee artistic
design, and are ornamented with dilata-
tions in the middle of the curvature, as the
4 Specimen (Fig. 45) taken from Chevroux
4 will testify.
7 In connexion with the knives, a very
recent discovery should be mentioned :
# that, namely, of small blades, wide and
# very thin, which remind us of the razors
of the age of iron, to be noticed hereafter.
Y W The annexed specimen, (Fig. 44a,) taken
Figure 45. from the palafitte of the Moulin de Bevais,
(Lake Neuchatel,) is from our own collection, and is provided with a notch on
the back, which facilitated its management.
Real chisels are also found, destined, no doubt, to the same use with
those of our own joiners, but with the difference that, instead of a
shank, they are provided with a socket, like the hatchets of ie third
type. We possess a very complete one, derived from 4% ‘
the station of Auvernier, which measures ten centi-
metres, (Fig. 46.) There occurs also in the collec-
tion of M. Schwab, at Bienne, a kind of hammer with
six faces, having a length of six centimetres by a
diameter of four, ‘This instrument likewise has
socket, (Fig. 47.) It remains, lastly, to mention the
fish-hooks of bronze which are found at many of our
stations. All are barbed, and though usually small,
like those now used with a line, there are larger and
stronger ones for the capture of heavy fish. We pos-
sess one from Gauderon, which measures not less than
twelve centimetres in length.
Figure 46. Figure’ 47,
O74
Figure 48.
PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
ARMS.
These, for the epoch under review, are swords, poniards, lances,
and arrows. The first are not numerous in our lake. The most re-
markable one we possess was discovered nearly forty years ago, in
the midst of the station of Concise, by Captain Pillichody, and was
deposited in the museum of Neuchatel, where it attracted the atten-
tion of numbers of the curious, but without stimulating new
investigations, until the day when a happy intution of the savant of
Zurich kindled the torch which guides us to-day. The sword in
question is not one of the largest; it measures fifty-nine centimetres,
(Fig. 48.) The blade, but little contracted above the hilt,* is en-
larged in the middle, and furnished with four grooves nearly parallel.
The hilt, terminated by a double volute, is composed of a metal red-
der than the blade and softer. But what is most significant is the
smallness of the hilt, which measures only seven centimetres, and
supposes a hand much smaller than an ordinary one; hilts of such
dimensions are scarcely even found in the sabres of India.
Neither are the poniards numerous. One has been found at the
lake of Bienne, the figure of which we borrow from the work of
M. Keller, (Fig. 49.) The blade was fixed to the hilt by means of
riveted nails. ‘These arms appear to have been more abundant in the
stations of the lakes of Italy, and might, probably enough, have
pertained to the early age of iron. Of the lances, the points are
skilfully wrought, (Fig. 50,) and measure from ten to seventeen centi-
Figure 49. Figure 50. Figure 51.
* In other specimens this contraction is considerable. The swords and poniards of bronze
have, like the hatchets, been made the subjects of classification by the Commission of Topo-
graphy of Gaules. In this eleven types of the poniard are distinguished; that whose figure
we give (Fig. 49) approaches a form quite common in Greece, Italy, and Gaul, and recalls
the blade with which the priest of Mithra slaughters his victim in most of the known bas-
reliefs. Of the sword the types are fourteen; the specimen here represented pertains to sec-
tion L, being the sword shaped like a sage leaf, whose hilt is furnished with antennee curved
after the manner of the hors of Ammon. (Rerue Archeologique, 1866, p. 180, pl. VI.)
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 375
metres. ‘The wings are not very large, but the centre expands into a rounded
prominence, which gives great solidity tothe weapon. The socket, whose border
is usually embellished by some parallel lines, is large, so as to be capable of
receiving a stout handle. Arrows (Fig. 51) are thus far not numerous. They
are small, scarcely measuring from three to four centimetres, triangular, and fre-
quently furnished with barbs more or less divergent, being of the same form
with those of the age of stone. Like the latter, most of them were attached to
the wood by a shank, and it is only in one specimen, found at Estavayer, that
a socket occurs. ‘Those with a shank come from the station of Font; or from
that of Nidau.
=
=
ere
Sty
=
es
ag
SS
Seis.
PS a eae ee
A ES
LAER) Tek
ee ate
ES
ES EONS eae
|
RS SSE
Fig. 52. Fig.53, Fig. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56. Fig. 57. Fi
ARTICLES OF ATTIRE.
Objects of luxury or personal adornment are at least as numerous as utensils
and arms, thus proving that the tribes of the age of bronze had arrived atea cer-
tain degree of ease and prosperity. In the collections attention is attracted by
pins for the hair, bracelets, pendants for the ears, and certain engraved plates,
e
g. 58.
376 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
serving, probably, as amulets. Clasps, on the other hand, which are so abun-
dant in subsequent epochs, are as yet unknown at our stations of bronze.
Pins for the hair are very numerous. ‘The lake of Neuchatel has itself fur-
nished many hundreds, and among them all we have not yet met with two
which were exactly alike, and could therefore be referred to the same mould.
Most of them are adorned with designs more or less complex, few being wholly
destitute of ornamentation. In the number several types may be distinguished
which are characterized by the form of the head, as may be judged of by a com-
parison of the annexed figures. Some havea round head (Figs. 52 and 53) and
are sometimes of considerable size. We possess one 34 centimetres in length,
while M. 'Troyon mentions specimens of 49 and even 57 centimetres. The head
is usually open-worked with circular holes, into which were fitted studs of the
metal in relief, perhaps also small plates of some other metal. In this case the
pin traverses the head and is often detached from it. At other times the head
is massive and without ornament, after the model of the pins of bone in the age
of stone. Pins with a flat button are not less abundant, this button being some-
times very small, (Fig. 54,) sometimes of considerable size, (Fig. 55.) It is
in some a mere enlargement of the stem, (Fig. 56,) and is occasionally repeated,
so as to furnish pins with two and three buttons, (Fig. 57.) With these pins
for the hair we would not confound certain very simple stylets, whose flattened
extremity is merely convoluted, (Fig. 58.)* It is probable that these objects
served for some special use. We are induced to think so from the fact that we
have found them at different times combined with small rings of bronze similar
to those of which notice will be taken further on, and which we have reasons
for regarding as the money of the epoch.
The éracelets testify a cultivated taste ; we find them of every model, from
the simple bracelet, composed of a bronze stem with a semi-cylindrical button at
each end, (Fig. 59,) to the large bracelet covered with elegant designs, (Fig. 60 ;)
Figure 59. Figure 60.
the latter are more rarely found, and the finest of them were taken from an urn
obtained from the pile-work of Cortaillod. These were six in number, all unin-
jured, and the designs as perfect as if they had just issued from the workshop
of the engraver. M. Otz possesses no less than eight of them in perfect preser-
vation, derived from this same palafitte of Cortaillod, which appears to have en-
joyed a speciality of this ornament; among them we find one embellished with
designs in the form of concentric circles.t Others are composed of several
twisted strands of bronze, artistically connected, (Vig. 61;) others still of
large and massy cylinders, bent, so as to touch by their extremities, and
* Better to evince the elegance of forms and beauty of the metal, we caused a number of
hair-pins, derived from different stations of Lake Neuchatel, to be polished, and exhibited
them at the exposition herlogere of Chaux-de-Fond, 1863, under the title of lacustrian jew-
elry. An opportunity was thus afforded to those who take an interest in the subject of form-
ing, by a comparison of the variety of models and perfection of designs, an idea of the care
which the ladies of this epoch brought to their toilets.
t Judging fromthe slight depth of theengraving, these articles would seem to have been all
east. The last explorations have disclosed specimens of double rings, which were, perhaps,
fastenings for the belt. We possess two specimens from the palafitte of Cortuillod (Fig. 62a. )
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 377
embellished with simple designs, (Fig. 62.) These were probably rings for the
legs.* A considerable number of bracelets are so small that, unless we suppose
them intended for children, it is difficult to conceive how they could have been
SOARS
Figure 61. Silk
passed over the hand, however small 3%
its dimensions. This, again, seems
to confirm the idea that the race of ’
4the bronze epoch was a diminutive
one.
The ear-rings are variously fash-
ioned; some are in the form of a pass
thin plate, narrowing toward the Figu
point of suspension, (Fig. 63;) others
are simple strands of bronze. We have
aes covered with a sort of enamel,
the composition of which deserves an an-
alysis. Some, again, are of slight threads,
to which a small convolved appendage is
~% suspended.
) ‘Theobjects which we regard as amulets
# are small triangular metallic plates, fur-
nished with an opening at the top, prob-
ably for suspension to the neck. Most Figure 64.
tl of them are ornamented with designs, usually parallel to
Figure 63a. the sides of the triangle and in zigzag lines, (Fig. 64.)
Others are composed of several branches, (Fig. 65;) while others are crescents
borne upona stem, (Fig. 66.)
Sap The designs which
2 adorn these several
objects of dress, as
well as the knives and
other utensils, are
generally much de-
faced, which leads to
the supposition that
they are only the re-
production of the fig-
S ures of the mould
# which had been them-
selves engraved on
Figure 65. the primitive model
But there are others which are of too sharp outline
to have been a mere reproduction by moulding.
These have been probably retouched by means of
burins of bronze, of which a number have been
collected. Figure 66.
piece UE A SE ee Solel See
* Similar ones may be seen in the museum of Wiesbaden, around the leg-bones of a wo-
man’s ekeleton, brought from the environs of Hoechst.
378 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
It is not rare to meet with bronze buttons in the palafittes ; we possess several
from the stations of Cortaillod and Auvernier. They are convex, formed of a
<2 thin plate, and have a loop on the concave side. One,
in the possession of M. Otz, from Cortaillod, measures
not less than two inches in diameter, and is decorated
on the border with designs characteristic of the age of
bronze, similar to those on the vase represented by
figure 25.
2-4 Thechemical composition is now an important ele-
=) ment of the study of lacustrian bronzes. From numer-
7 ous analyses made by M. Fellenberg, it results that the
74 proportion of copper and tin is not so fixed as was at
first thought, when, to a lacustrian bronze there was
assigned 10 per cent. of tin and 90 of copper. The pre-
portion of the tin, on the contrary, may vary from 4 to
20 per cent., according as the founders of the epoch
experienced more or less facility in procuring that
metal. These proportions are indicated more or less sensibly by the tint
of the metal. The bronze into which enters a tenth part of tin (as in the metal
of cannon) has the finest color; it is the most common in our lakes, and in its
tint nearest approaches gold. When the tin is in less proportion, the metal is
more red and soft; it takes, on the other hand, a light tint and becomes very
hard when the proportion of tin sensibly exceeds the tenth. What is still more
suggestive is the absence in objects of the age of bronze, of every other metal in
any considerable proportion. If lead, iron, or nickel be occasionally found, it is
in insignificant quantities, like impurities in the ores of copper. Hence M. Fel-
lenberg concludes that when a bronze contains however inconsiderable a portion
of lead or zine, it cannot have proceeded from the age of bronze, but must date
from a more recent epoch.* We will further add that, from the recent researches
* of Dr. F. Wibelt on the composition of ancient bronzes, the antehistoric artisans
must have possessed the art of annealing bronze. In effect, bronze, to be mal-
leable when cold, should not contain more than five per cent. of tin; when
heated, it still yields under the hammer, though containing 15 per cent. of tin.
To work bronzes which contain a greater proportion of tin, it is necessary to
subject them to the process of d’Arcet, by cooling them suddenly. In this way,
a malleability is given to them which they have not naturally, and which they
do not acquire when they are cooled slowly. Now as, among the bronzes of the
palafittes, there are found hammered specimens which must necessarily have
been worked when cold, it follows that the art of annealing bronze must be
nearly as ancient with us as the art of preparing it. It is surprising that, know-
ing this influence of cooling on the metals, the people of the age of iron should
not have been led to the discovery of steel, which is but an inverse process.
It remains to mention, in connexion with the
stones for grinding grain which are common to
, the two ages, certain discoid stones from 1U to
<s\ 12 centimetres in diameter, furnished with a
“<9 groove of more or less depth on their cireum-
= ference, and respecting whose signification
4 there is far from being an agreement,( Fig. 66a.)
=i*/ It has been asked if they were not pullies,
especially as their two faces often present slight
cavities, which would explain why they are
always of hard stone, (quartzite, granite or
Figure 66 a. diorite,) and never of limestone or molasse.
Baie ts
Figure 62 a.
* See Appendix at the end of this section.
t Die Cultur der Bronzezeit: Kiel, 1865, p. 24.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 379
But if this were so, the groove should never be wanting; but this is not the
ease. Others have thought that they served for weights to suppoit the warp in
weaving; but whence, then, the necessity of choosing hard stones? Pebbles of
limestone or molasse would have answered the same purpose. M. ‘Troyon
entertains the opinion that these discoids were used in games, and relies
upon the fact that in the collection of Pinelli (Rome, 1816, fol. 15,) a personage
is represented as holding between his hands a similar disk, on the cireumfer-
ence of which is rolled a cord designed to assist in casting the stone. In this
manner the advantage of employing hard stones might be explained, but we
should scarcely understand the absence of the groove. ‘Till now these stones
appear to be especially characteristic of the palafittes of the age of bronze; they
are not found in the ancient tombs, nor yet in the dolmens.
SKELETONS OF THE AGE OF BRONZE,
For a long time we possessed but a single authentic skull of the age of
bronze, derived from the station of Auvernier. Though incomplete, for it wants
the bones of the face, it is still sufficiently characterized to throw some light
on the conformation of the race to which it belonged. It is at once small, thin,
elongated and remarkably narrow, especially in the middle region, which be-
gins to contract even from the middle of the parietal bones. ‘These boues pre-
sent, moreover, a very singular curvature, being, as it were, elbowed in the mid-
dle. ‘The occiput, on the other hand, is extraordinarily developed. This, it
will be seen, is not a favorable conformation. Unless an individual exception
be supposed, we must conclude that the race was feeble and inferior. The
diminutiveness of form is further corroborated by the smallness of the hilt of
the swords, which has been noticed above.
In the course of last year, our skilful explorer, Benz Kopp, has withdrawn
from beneath a beam partially carbonized, among the piles of the same station
of Auvernier, a skeleton much more complete. The skull, particularly, is al-
most entire. It pertains, like that from Meilen before mentioned, to a child, as
is testified not only by the loose sutures, but also and chiefly by the dentition.
The molar next to the last has but come through, and the canines are seen at
_ the bottom of the alveoli, which indicates an age of about eight years. ‘he
skull is small, elongated, the front very low and narrow, but, apart from that,
well formed, without exaggerated prominences, which is to be attributed perhaps
to the immature age. MM. Rutimeyer and His assign it to their type of skulls
of Sion, the most widely disseminated in the ante-Roman epochs, (Urania Hel-
vetica, p. 37.) The races of domestic animals do not appear to have varied
from the epoch of stone to that of bronze.
INDUSTRY OF THE AGE OF BRONZE.
The men of this age, however diminutive in size, had not the less arrived at
quite an advanced degree of civilization. From the age of stone to the age of
bronze, there is a manifest progress. This progress is due, beyond all, to the
introduction of the metal which, by endowing the lacustrian colonists with bet-
ter arms and better utensils, had for its necessary result the augmentation of
their security and comfort. Once in possession of arms of bronze, they must
have sought completely to appropriate this element by preparing it for them-
selves. ‘They did not delay to manufacture bronze at home, as is attested by
the matrices of hatchets collected from Lake Geneva and now in the collection
of M. Forel at Morges.* ‘Chis was the commencement of the industrial arts.
And no sooner, doubtless, was what is necessary provided for, than luxury made
its appearance ; and the ornaments and attire which have been preserved to us
*These matrices are of bronze; there are others of clay, and among them fragments of moulds
for bracelets may be seen in the collection of Dr. Clement, taken from the palatitteof Estavayer.
380 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
prove that the artists of the epoch were wanting neither in taste nor skill.*
This taste is evineed even in common objects ; witness the elegant forms of the
earthen vessels and utensils, and the care which was bestowed on the decora-
tion of such objects as knives and reaping-hooks, though with designs, it is true,
very simple and monotonous. Strange that these tribes did not, like the abo-
rigines of the caverns of Perigord, conceive the idea of imitating nature in their
ornaments, but shut themselves up within certain arbitrary and traditional lines,
as do still the Kabyles of our own day. If it were allowed to compare them
with any modern people, we should say that their stereotyped manner some-
what reminds us of that of the Chinese.
DESTINATION OF THE PALAFITTES.
The distribution and state of preservation of the antiquities in the interior of
the palafittes of the age of bronze are not without importance. It is evident,
from a mere inspection of the objects collected at no matter what station, that
we have before us no rubbish which might be lost, without being regarded.
They have not fallen into the water at hazard, any more than the quantity of
vessels which are accumulated at certain points, or the jars of provisions which
are drawn up uninjured. It has been said that they were hoarded beneath the
water by some violent cause, by a defeat, for instance, in which the inhabitants
were overwhelmed with their most precious effects, their arms and provisions,
under the burning ruins of their cottages. But in that case we ought to find
their skeletons beside the bones of their animals. In view of this difficulty,
and yet others which the idea of habitation involves, we would ask if, perhaps,
we have not to deal with the question of simple magazines destined for utensils
and provisions, and which have been destroyed by the flames, as seems to be
indicated by the traces of fire frequently exhibited as well by the wood-work
as the earthen vessels. It would thus be explained how it is that the objects
in bronze are almost all new and the vessels accumulated at single points. ‘This
hypothesis seems to be corroborated by the opinion of some of our most expe-
rienced seekers of antiquities, who maintain that there is no chance of finding
anything of value except where the timbers are charred, and that time is lost in
exploring palafittes where the wood is not carbonized. It is, at the same time,
no unusual thing to find in the palafittes utensils which have been deformed by
the action of fire.
LAND-HABITATIONS OF THE AGE OF BRONZE IN SWITZERLAND.
There is every reason to believe that there existed simultaneously habitations
on ¢erra firma, nor could it be otherwise if the palafittes are admitted to have
been simply magazines. ‘The supposition of such habitations, based on the
considerable number of celts and other bronze objects which are found not only
in the woods and fields of our environs, but in a number of other localities both
in Switzerland and foreign countries, has been confirmed by the recent discovery
of genuine dwellings, containing the same utensils with our lacustrian stations,
at Ebersberg in the canton of Zurich,t as well as at other places.
Dr. Clement having explored last year in the environs of Gorgier, canton of
Neuchatel, several mounds composed of erratic stones bearing traces of fire,
found in one of them, intermingled with coals, different objects in bronze, among
others a bracelet and some reaping hooks, the latter resembling in form those of
Cartaillod and Auvernier, but differing from them by the presence of a quite
* We have seen on the arm of a lady of our acquaintance a bracelet taken from one ot
our palatittes which would have reflected no disgrace on our own jewellers.
t Mettheilungen der antiquar. Gesellschaft, vol. vij, div. 7.—It has been supposed, on the
ground of certain traditions respecting sacred lakes mentioned by ancient authors (Cicero,
de nat. Deor., lid. ij, 380; Justin, xxx, 3; Strabo, Geog., vol. iv,) that the well-preserved
objects of the palafittes of the age of bronze might be offerings which had been cast into the
lake; but this is an hypothesis to which nothing yet known affords corroboration. (Die
Reste, §c. Sth Report, 1802.)
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 381
prominent heel at the origin of the blade.* 'The chemical composition of the
bronze is the same with that of the reaping-hooks of the lake.
Dr. Schild has recently discovered on the plateau of Granges, in the canton
of Soleure, a series of these heeled reaping-hooks, accompanied by four very
perfect paring-knives and a fragment of a sword, intermingled with calcined
pebbles and earth, which leads him to conjecture that at this place there was
once a workshop or foundry, more especially as the paring-knives are new,
without the least trace of being worn. A not less characteristic specimen of
knife-axe has just been found near Neuchatel, in the defiles of Seyon. In general,
this form seems more frequent on firm land than in the lacustrian stations. The
same appears to be the case with the reaping-hooks with a heel, which have not
yet been found in the palafittes, but which occur at Hallstadt. The question
therefore is, whether they pertain to the same epoch.
M. Suess has lately published (Bulletin del’ Académie des Sciences de Vienne,
tome li) a view of very important discoveries which he has just made in Lower
Austria, where antiquities, analogous to those of our lakes, are found heaped
together on the summits of hills, especially in the Vitur-Berg, not far from the
small village of Eggenburg. There are found here, along with a prodigious
quantity of flakes of silex, which seem to indicate manufactures of the epoch of
stone, objects in bronze, such as brooches and poniards, some articles of iron,
but chiefly utensils of stone and a vast amount of fragments of pottery, some-
times rude and mixed with small pebbles, sometimes of a fine homogeneous
paste, which would seem to imply, not a people possessing simultaneously ‘all
these objects of stone, bronze, and pottery, but simply that these places have
been inhabited during many consecutive ages. M. Forel has picked up in the
environs of Morges a bracelet in all points similar to those of his rich lacustrian
collection. M. Gerlach has discovered in the alluvion of the Sionne, near Sion
in Valais, bracelets characteristic of the age of bronze, accompanied by calcined
bones, which would tend to prove that the tribes of that epoch were accustomed
to burn their dead, and again might serve to explain the rarity of human remains.
M. Thioly,t last year, collected in one of the grottoes of the Grand-Saleve, (the
cavern of Bossey,) near Geneva, a quantity of fragments of pottery, which, by
their designs, altogether remind us of the age of bronze. Fragments of vessels
not less curious, but of fine paste, accompanied, as at the Grand-Saleve, by
numerous bones, were some time ago found by M. Otz, civil engineer, in a grotto
on the banks of the Reuse, in the canton of Neuchatel.
M. Quiquerez has just announced as existing in the Bernese Alps, in front of
‘Vorbourg, and at a point which commands the entrance of the Val de Felémont,
a remarkable series of prehistoric objects, which relate essentially to the age of
bronze. They consist of several knives, an arrow point, part of a bracelet, all
of bronze, besides a considerable collection of fragments of earthen vessels imper-
perfectly baked, and bearing figures which recall in all respects those of our pala-
fittes.t
RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS.
Hitherto we have discovered no idol nor anything having reference to a cult
or worship, unless we consent to regard as religious emblems certain earthen
objects, the so-called /acustrian crescents. These have, in effect, the erescent
form, the curve and horns varying in different specimens; some are furnished
*The same form with the heel is found also in Scandinavia and at many points of Franee
and Germany, (Nillson, Ureinwohner, tab. iii, fig. 41.) It remains to be known whether the
hillocks, which are found by thousands in the environs of Gorgier, were tombs, or places of
incineration.
t Debris de Vindustrie humaine trouvés dans la caverne de Bossey. Geneva, 1865.
t Indicateur d’hist. et d’antiquités suisses. March, 1865, page 16.—M. Quiquerez mentions,
moreover, objects of iron and vessels fabricated with the wheel, which would indicate the age
of. iron; and, again, an arrow of silex, which would point to the age of stone; so that this
‘station would seem to afford remains of three ages. ;
382 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
with a stem or foot, but too slender to support them in an upright position. The
measurement in some cases amounts to 40 centimetres. Most of them are of
B i argillaceous earth mixed with quartzose grains
f° and small pebbles, like the rings for supporting
the vases, but still ornamented with designs very
= rude, and only on one side. They were, at all
, events, objects of little value either for composi-
tion or form ; and since it is impossible to assign
to them any use, it has been asked whether they
might not represent a species of talismanor relig-
ious symbol which was suspended within or per-
haps at the doors of dwellings, which would ex-
plain why they are pierced with a hole intended
evidently for the passage of a strap.
Figure 67.
The first lacustrian cres-
cents were discovered by M.
Schwab at the station of Ni-
dau; but asthis station com-
prises the relics of the three
ages, while the true palafittes 43
of the age of bronze had fur-
nished nothing of the kind,
M.'Troyon (Habit. /acustres,
page 185) concluded that
they must have appertained
to the first age of iron rather
than to that of bronze. Since
that time we have ascertain-
ed their presence in the two
palafittes of Cortaillod and Figure 67a.
Auvernier; there is no doubt, therefore, that they ascend to the age of bronze,
They have been found also at Ebersberg, in the canton of Zurich, though here,
instead of being of baked earth, as with us, they are occasionally of stone. Such,
among others, is the fine specimen which we borrow from the work of M. Keller,
and which our learned friend has adopted as the frontispiece of his third report.*
It is of reddish sandstone (Fig. 67.) M. Quiquerez announces a fragment of
one in stone among the débris of Vorbourg, near Felémont.
Commercial relations—If commerce there was none, or one very much re-
stricted, during the age of stone, it is beyond doubt, on the other hand, that,
from the commencement of the age of bronze, there must have existed very ex-
tensive commercial relations, which are attested by divers objects of foreign
origin; among others, by the graphite which served as a coating to the vases,
by the beads of amber and objects of glass which have been furnished by the
palafittes of Cortaillod and Auvernier.
But the most conclusive proof in favor of an international commerce is sup-
plied by the tin, which enters, to the amount of nearly a tenth, into the com-
SES position of the bronze. Now, as this metal
<4, is completely a stranger to our countries, (to
the Alps as well as the Jura,) it must neces-
Fisarily have been brought from abroad, and, asi
f/ itsconsumption was considerable, judgin,: from
the quantity of objects collected within a few
Ie years, there was in this the material for an en
Figure 68. important traffic. We have no positive data Figure 69. 5
as to what products the natives might offer in return for the metal which was im-
ich emma, Ss ahah Lhe nS SARL A OMT ER Tes I A
* Mittheilungen der antiquarischen Gesellschaft, 3d and 4th Report.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 383
ported; but as, among all ancient populations, commerce was effected by simple
exchange, it may be conjectured that furs supplied to our lacustrian tribes no
inadequate medium for that purpose. Nothing has yet been found which recalls
our coin bearing an effigy ; possibly it may have been replaced by certain small
rings of bronze similar to those now used for curtains, but with dentated edges ;
of these we have collected a large number of different calibres at the station of
Auvernier. (Figs. 68 and 69.)
RESUME ON THE AGE OF BRONZE.
Lhe features which characterize the age of bronze in the palafittes of the
lakes of East Switzerland, and which distinguish them from those of the preced-
ing age, may be summed up as follows:
1. The presence of metal under the almost exclusive form of cast bronze,
more or less pure, but with no intentional alloy of lead or zinc, The seams of
the moulding are seen on most of the objects. The cutting instruments only
have undergone hammering, and the articles of dress have sometimes been re-
touched with the graver.
2. A considerable improvement in the pottery, notwithstanding the absence
of the wheel. The finer utensils are generally conical, and provided with a
glaze of graphite.
3. The presence of rings of baked earth to support the conical vessels.
4, The appearance of discoid stones and Jacustrian crescents.
5. Spindle-whirls of baked earth, replacing the stone weights of the pre-
ceding age.
6. The greater depth of the palafittes, and hence their greater distance from
the shore.
7. The piles are sunk in the ground, and to this end are always hewed to a
point; the strokes of the axe are still easily recognized.
APPENDIX.
It will be acceptable, we doubt not, to archeolgists and to students of lacustrian antiqui-
ties if we here lay before them the general remarks with which M. de Fellenberg terminates,
in the Bulletin de la Societé des Sciences of Berne, the series of his numerous analyses of
ancient bronzes. (Mrttheilungen der Bern. naturforschenden Gesellschaft, 1805.)
“The aspect of ancient bronzes is different according as they have been
found—1, in peat; 2, in water; 3,in earth. ,
“1. The bronzes found in peat are covered with a black, earthy crust, which
is easily removed by scouring in water; the alloy then appears with metallic
brilliancy and with the color peculiar to bronzes. That the metal was im-
bedded in an organic ooze, beneath a stratum of water of several feet, which
entirely excluded the access of atmospheric oxygen, sufliciently explains the
perfect preservation of the bronzes, which present themselves in the state in
which they existed at the moment of their submersion in the water.
“2. Those found in water at the bottom of lakes and rivers are less perfectly
preserved ; they are ordinarily covered with a calcareous coat, which still
allows the lustre and color of the metal to appear at many points. When these
bronzes have dark or greenish spots, the latter are of little depth, and disappear
by treatment with acids, which re-estab'ishes the color of the metal. The
hatchets and knives have retained their edges unimpaired. When we find in
water, bronzes covered with a thick coat of verdigris, it may be inferred that
they have been a long time in earth before being covered with water, immersion
therein not having availed to remove the strong oxidation already. contracted.
«3. Bronzes found in the earth in tombs are very frequently distinguished
by a fine green crust, more or less light or dark, having often a vitreous lustre,
which is designated by the name of patina. This envelope has a very variable
thickness—sometimes that of a sheet of paper, sometimes attaining several
/
384 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
millimetres. When the file is applied to it, or, better still, when it is dissolved
with nitric or sulphuric acid diluted, the bronze appears colored red; under the
crust of carbonate of copper is a stratum of protoxide of copper, and only when
this has been removed by means of ammonia does the metal appear with its
proper color and lustre. This characterizes in a sure manner the slow oxida-
tion of the bronze in a moist soil. ‘The layer of protoxide of copper between
the pure metal and the exterior layer of carbonate of copper is, according to
the researches of Dr. Wibel, a product of the reduction of the carbonate of
copper by the copper of the bronze. Bronzes of this category have often lost
their previous metallic properties, and are found, when the objects have an in-
considerable section, to be transformed throughout into protoxide of copper
covered on the exterior with a brilliant stratum, green or blue, of carbonate.
When there remains in the interior a nucleus of metal this has become erystal-
line, and so fragile and incohesive that it shivers under the hammer. Figures,
if a little delicate, as well as the edges and points of the objects, have disap-
peared, which is never the case with bronzes preserved in water.
“ Composition of bronzes —W ith reference to this subject, it is of importance to
distinguish the principal elements of the composition from those which are only
accidentally present. '‘T’o the former pertain the copper, tin, zinc, and in some
cases also the lead. The accidental elements are silver, lead, iron, antimony,
nickel, and cobalt, As regards the two latter, 1 thought, when entering upon
this inquiry, that their presence might lead to some conclusions on the origin of
the copper used in the bronzes; but when I found that these metals appeared
there, though in very small quantity, much more frequently than I had antici-
pated, I was forced to abandon that idea and ceased to pay attention to it.
‘“« Principal elements of the bronzes —1. Copper is incontestably the most im-
portant element of the bronzes, as well as that of which the proportion is great-
est; yet its quantity varies from 67 to 95 per 100, and even more. It is neces-
sary, moreover, to observe that after deduction of the tin, all the accidental ele-
ments, such as silver, lead, iron, antimony, nickel, and cobalt, should be added to
the copper as forming part of its impurities, so that it is difficult to indicate, from
the analyses, any constant and intentional proportion of its alloyage with tin.
According as the copper proceeds from pure oxides or from very impure sul-
phurated ores mixed with different metallic sulphurs, its influence on the com-
position of bronzes is considerable, inasmuch as the greater or less quantities
of accidental elements are in relation to its degree of purity, as the bronzes of
Mecklenbourg show in a striking manner. 2. Tin. From historical tradition,
tin appears to have been introduced into commerce by the Phenicians and dis-
persed by them through Europe, in the sense, no doubt, that this mercantile.
people conveyed the metal directly to the inhabitants of the coasts, whence it
made its way into the interior by means of commercial exchange, which would
explain why tin appears in the bronzes in proportions so variable—from 3 to 4
per cent. up to 20 per cent. and more, according as it was more or less abundant,
and without regard to the properties which it might communicate to the bronze.
As the tin coming from the tin islands was alluvial, its influence on the bronzes
was, in view of its relative purity, but in the ratio of the quantity employed.
3. Zinc made its appearance late, in the bronzes of the age of iron. Although
it was only recognized as a special metal towards the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury, yet as early as the third century before our era it was added, under the
form of natural calamine or cadmium, in the casting of copper or bronze, in order
to obtain a yellow alloy. All the bronzes containing zine pertain, consequently,
to times posterior to the period of bronze, and were unknown during the age
properly so called. 4. Lead is found, according to our analyses, in such sinall
quantity in the bronzes of the lacustrian constructions and in the Celtie bronzes
of Hallstadt and Mecklenbourg, that it must be there considered as an accidental
element proceeding from the impurity of the copper. With this is associated
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 385
the fact that silver has been found in none of these places, while gold is quite
frequent. It must be inferred that the populations to whom silver was unknown
had no more knowledge of lead as a particular metal. ‘The case is wholly dif
ferent with the bronzes of the Greeks, Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans, m
which lead appears as an intentional element in considerable proportions. It
has been shown that all these nations were acquainted with silver from a remote
period, and partially possessed it before iron. The appearance of lead as a
special metal, applicable in large quantity to technic uses, can only be explained
by the metallurgic elaboration of the ores of silver, since, in ancient times, silver
was principally extracted from the argentiferous ores of lead, and, indeed, could
be extracted from them only, for no other sources were known. This does not
imply that it may not often have happened, during the age of bronze, that lead
was produced in a metallic state by the Celtic smelters, but without being con-
sidered by them as other than an isolated result, which led to no other conse-
quences. The question is not whether lead might have been known before
silver, but whether lead was in general use among the ancient populations before
silver. This question appears to have been resolved negatively, inasmuch as,
even in the time of Pliny, the Romans only distinguished lead from tin by the
names of plumbum nigrum and plumbum candidum or album, and possessed no
particular appellation for tin. By stannum they only understood certain alloys
of lead destined for the soldering or lining of vessels of copper. If this was so
among the people of civilized antiquity, it can scarcely be admitted that the
half savage tribes of the age of bronze were more advanced in this respect.
“The presence, therefore, of lead in bronzes, in such proportions as to denote
that it has been designedly introduced, seems a sufficient criterion for recognizing
these alloys as proceeding from civilized populations, and not from those of the
age of bronze. The vase of Greechwy]* affords, in this respect, an instructive
example. The bronze of the group of lions does not differ only from that of
the vase by the object represented, but also by its proportion of lead, which is
10 per 100. From the considerations here developed, then, I regard lead as a
factor altogether as important as zinc in the estimate formed regarding bronzes,
and I repeat that lead is not found in the bronzes of the age of bronze properly
so called, in the quality of a principal element. The plumbiferous bronzes pro-
ceed from populations among whom that period was past, in consequence of
their knowledge of iron and of silver, and who had acquired a superior degree of
culture. :
“Origin of bronzes——Opinions on the origin of bronzes are contradictory.
There are very competent authorities who maintain that it was the Phenicians
who discovered and also diffused bronze over the European continent, and that
the bronzes which come to us from the north, from the Celtic tombs and lacus-
trian constructions, are Phenician bronzes. 'They receive it as an ascertained
fact that the Phenicians alone possessed the commerce of tin, because they alone
knew the route to the tin islands, the Cassiterides, and likewise that they had
penetrated to the Baltic, and while they sought there for the yellow amber, con-
veyed lead and a knowledge of the preparation of bronze to the inhabitants of
the coasts. But it does not follow that the fabrication of bronze was confined
to the Phenicians. This supposition is contradicted in a positive manner by the
very different composition of the bronzes of different nations, by the very vari-
able proportions between the copper and tin and the inequality of the accidental
elements. Moreover, it seems surprising that the nearest neighbors of the Phe-
nicians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, and the Romans, should
have manufactured plumbiferous bronzes, while the Phenicians carried to the
*See A. Jahn, Etruskische Alterthumer gefunden in der Schweiz, (Mem. de la Soc. des
Antiq. de Zurich, VII, 1865.) A. Morlot, Etudes geologico archeologiques, (Soc. vaudoise
Se. nat., T. VI, p. 314.)
25 8
386 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
people of the north only pure bronzes, without the alloy of lead. If the civil-
ized people of the Mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it can scarcely be
doubted that the calculating Phenicians would have done as much, and, at least
in their commerce with distant and half-civilized tribes, have replaced the more
costly tin by the cheaper metal. But this question cannot be decided with cer-
tainty until we shall possess analyses of well authenticated ancient Phenician
bronzes, whose composition we can then compare with that of the bronzes of
the north. This desideratum it has not been in my power to realize. In fine,
the Phenician origin of the bronzes widely scattered over the European conti-
nent is further contradicted by the discovery of numerous foundries, which prove
that the smelting of bronze was almost everywhere a domestic industry, the tin
of commerce and the copper of the nearest excavations being employed, which
would of itself explain the presence in the bronzes of such different accidental
elements.
“Qn the whole, then, I consider that the first knowledge of bronze may have
been conveyed to the populations of the period under review not only by the
Phenicians, but by other civilized people dwelling more to the southeast. It
became thenceforth a common resource, the type, in some sort, of a whole civil-
ized epoch, and was maintained and developed of itself, until, by the discovery
and diffusion of iron, the general and exclusive employment of bronze had ceased
and an end was thus put to the period of bronze.
“T here terminate a work commenced five years ago, with the hope that the
undertaking may not have been useless, but may contribute in some small de-
gree to the advancement of our knowledge of the pre-historic times of our ancestry,
as yet so obscure. Should my opinions not have been exempt from all prepos-
session, it is to be hoped that others, with greater means at their disposal, will
resume the investigation, and, guided by better lights, conduct it to a successful
end, by embracing within the scope of their researches the bronzes of the ancient
Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, and Phenicians.”’
III.—AGE OF IRON.
For a long time there have been collected at many points of the lake of Neu-
chatel, articles of iron associated with others of a more ancient origin, as at
Gletterens, Bevaix, Cortaillod, and Font.* In reality, however, there is but a
single station of pile-work which is referable exclusively to the age of iron—
that, namely, of the Téne, near Marin, on lake Neuchatel. It consequently
claims from us a moment’s attention.
The shore of the lake, between the Maison Rouge and the Hospice de Pre-
fargier, below a stretch of land called the Heidenweg or highway of the Pagans,
is very flat and composed of a fine and turfy deposit, which extends under the
neighboring peat-mosses. The waves of the lake, by wasting and undermining
this formation, occasion frequent land-slips, which, viewed from the surface,
have the appearance of large abrupt rocks conveying the idea of a jetty. A
post which here and there shows itself at the edge of these fallen masses has
been erroneously taken by the inhabitants of the coast for a relic of this ancient
jetty, and hence the piles, though long known, attracted no attention. This ex-
tent of shoal, where the water is of little depth, (60 to 70 centimetres,) has re-
ceived the name of Téne.t In sailing over this oozy floor of the Téne, there
* Objects in iron are also found at many points of the lake of Bienne, as at the Steinberg
of Nidau, at Sutz, Latrigen, Hageneck, de Neuville, Vigneules.
t Doubtless from the latin tenuis, in German dtinn. In the patois of certain places, it
would seem customary to say, ‘‘ the water is tene,” that is of little depth; the local word
teneviére has probably the same origin. (This class of words, like the Greek Tevayoc, a
shoal or shallow, would seem to be derived from the root Tey of the verb Tevva, Teva, to ez-
tend and so to become thin. Tr. )
9
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 387
may be seen, at a number of places, groups of piles hewed for the most part to
a point and rising from 10 to 30 centimetres above the bottom, without attain-
ing the surface except at very low water. The piles are similar to those of the
stations of bronze, of medium thickness, measuring from 12 to 20 centimetres in
diameter. They are generally very soft, in so much that it is difficult to with-
draw them entire. The beams which lie here and there on the bottom are for
the most part less decomposed; some have been squared and even furnished
with mortises carefully cut; while occasionally the cross-pieces are found still
attached to the beams, being the remains of ancient walls or enclosures.
Here, as in the stations of the age of stone and of bronze, it is in the imme-
diate neighborhood of the piles that antiquities are collected. At first some
objects were found on the surface, but the greater part are buried at a depth of
1m. to 1m. 50c., whence they are withdrawn by searching in the ooze. The
objects obtained in this way are always best preserved; the arms and utensils
of iron particularly have been protected from the contact of the air, and, fa-
vored also by the antiseptic properties of the peaty substratum, remain uninjured.
It is possible that eventually antiquities will be found wherever piles make
their appearance ; if so, the T’éne must have been a considerable establishment.*
Hitherto the greater part of the objects has been collected at two or three
points of a very limited extent, measuring in the whole less than a hectare.
The numerous objects which the station of the Tene has furnished within a few
years may be classified as follows, in the order of their frequency : Arms,
utensils and vessels, objects of apparel, coins, skeletons.
ARMS.
The arms of the Téne possess a peculiar interest,t not only on account of
their fine preservation as objects of art and curiosity, but also and chiefly as
documents for the history of Gallic civilization. Through the munificence of his
“Majesty the Emperor of the French we have been enabled to compare these
arms with a collection of casts representing the arms collected in the trenches
of Alise, and we have there found the most vivid confirmation of our previous
impressions that the inhabitants of the palafitte of Téne were Gauls.
Among these arms, those which strike us most are the large iron heads of
lances, measuring as much as 40 centimetres in length by a breadth of from 4
to 6, of elaborate workmanship, strengthened by a central prominence running
down each face, and very large lateral development or wings, which are not al-
ways symmetrical. Some are irregularly emarginated, doubtless to render the
* The piles are not limited to the shoals, but extend also under the detritus of the shore to
the distance of more than a hundred metres from the beach at mean water. It may be as-
sumed that they advance at least fifty metres into the water; on the other hand, the space
they occupy is in breadth at least 1,000 metres, which multiplied by 150 gives a surface of
150,000 square metres, or fifteen hectares.
t From a communication made by M. F. de Roagemont to the Society of History of Swit-
zerland, at its last meeting at Neuchatel, in 1864, it appears that the arms of the Tene corre-
spond in astriking manner with the description of the arms of the Gauls given by Diodorus
Siculus, (book 5, chap. 30:) ‘‘As a weapon of defence, he says, the Gauls have a large
sword suspended to the right side by a long chain of iron or copper, and some of them
fasten their tunics with belts ornamented with plates of gold and silver. For throwing, they
have javelins, which they call lances; the iron, a cubit in length, (nearly a demi-metre, ) the
stock a cubit and something more, the breadth of the blade is nearly two palms, (about three
inches.) Their swords are not less in length than the saunium or javelin of other nations,
and their javelins have the iron longer than their swords. Of these arms some are forged.
straight, others in zigzag with the extremity bent backward, with a view that, in striking,
they may not only pierce,, but tear and lacerate the flesh when withdrawn.” As M. de
Rougemont suspects Diodorus of not having perfectly understood the author from whom he
copied, we propose the following correction, which has been suggested to us by a view of the
arms of the Tene: ‘‘ The blades of these javelins, three inches in breadth, are very extraordi-
nary, for they are broader than the long and large swords, and yet these swords do not yield
in point of breadth to the javelins of any other nation.”
388 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
weapon more formidable, (Fig. 70 ;) others are open-worked, with salient out-
line, (Fig. 71;) fragments of the staff are also found, which was remarkably
7 slender, and shod at its extremity with an iron point. Although
the socket is very small, and supposes consequently a slender staff,
the blade was too carefully wrought to admit the idea of any pur-
pose of exposing it to the hazard of being lost by launching it. It
was a weapon for thrusting, not for throwing.*
The swords of the Téne merit particular
attention. The blade (Fig. 72) has a length
of from 80 to 90 centimetres, is very flat,
being scarcely 3 millimetres in thickness,
with two edges carried regularly to a point;
it has no guard, and of the hilt there remains
but the tongue, which, without being very
large, is yet calculated for the hand of an or-
dinary man, (13 to 15 centimetres.) The
transition from the tongue to the blade is
formed by a graceful curve provided with an
iron flange, which serves as a guard and is
adapted to a corresponding projection of the
. scabbard. We have not yet discovered the
* square form, which is the most common at
Alise. A part of the swords are in their
sheaths, but as they have not been attacked
‘\ by rust, (the qualities of the peat having pre-
“served them from oxidation,) we have suc-
ceeded in withdrawing several of them. They
are straight and two-edged, most of them so
sharp and uninjured that they might very well
be used to-day. On examination we discover
on their surface undulating lines, which some-
what remind us of damasked blades, as if
they were composed of strips and clippings
which had been welded together; the borders
only are perfectly smooth, like the blades
found at Alise.t Several of them bear the
token of the workshop near the hilt, (Fig. 74.7)
* We cannot concur in the opinion of M. Keller that these were only arms of parade; the’
median ridge, whichis prolonged, while always diminishing to the extremity of the lance,
is a well known and constant expedient in the art of forging. As the lance is hollow with-
in, it has been asked whether it be not formed of two plates soldered together. If this were
so, the soldering would have been effected with great skill, for there is no trace of it percep-
tible. M. Schwab has recently discovered at the Tene an iron lance 22 centimetres in length,
whose edges alternately re-enter and project like the teeth of a saw, so as to present in pro-
file an undulating line, the object of which, no doubt, was to aggravate the wound. M.
Keller is confident that it was to this form that Diodorus Siculus refers, (V. chap. 30,) in the
description he has left us of a formidable weapon of the Gauls.
tM. de Reffye remarks as follows in regard to this type of sword, which is very frequent at
Alise, and which the Gauls may have borne from the time of Camillus: ‘‘ In these weapons
the edge is not of the same iron as the body of the blade. The workman after having forged
that part of very tough iron, drawn out in the direction of its length, welded on each side small
strips of a softer iron to form the edges; this iron was afterwards hardened by hammering.
In this way, the soldier, after combat, might repair, by whetting, the gaps of his blade as the
oe does those of his seythe when it requires sharpening.” (Revue Archeclogique, Novem-
er, 1864, p. 347.
+The fone of iP sword here represented resembles slightly a leaf of trefoil. There are
not less than ten of them in the collection of Col. Schwab, which we reproduce from the
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 389
Figure 73. Figure:74.
limited space, of a few square metres, a cireumstance which seems
to countenance the idea which we have already advanced with refer-
ence to the constructions of the age of bronze, namely, that there
were here magazines rather than habitations properly so called. It
would be difficult to conceive how so many swords could be found in
a single dwelling, except upon the supposition of a desperate defence.
Figure 72. But, in that case, it would be little probable that they should be
new and in the sheath.
The sheath is of wrought iron, composed of two very thin sheets, of which
one covers the other, with the exception of the lower part, which is furnished
6th Report of M. Ferd. Keller, p. 296, (Fig. 74a.) Our learned friend remarks, on this ocea-
sion, that with the exception of the wild boar and leaf of trefoil, all these figures recall the
form of the crescent, which appears as asymbol on many pieces of the Gallic money. He
asks if these different signs may not perhaps designate the manufacture of various clans.
390 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
with a rim of iron skilfully adapted, and embracing the two edges of the scab-
bard. It is furnished at top with a special plate, which bears the ring of sus-
pension, and whose border serves as a frame for
the very remarkable designs which characterize
these sheaths. These designs had from the first
attracted the attention of M. F. Keller, as being
equally foreign to Roman art and to the age of
bronze.* Most of them are engraved with the
oscillating burin, (tremulirstich,) so that, on close
j examination, we recognize the reciprocating
movement of the instrument by which they are
traced. Some of the scabbards are ornamented
with figures wrought with the punch; this is
particularly the case with a unique specimen of
our own collection which represents the charac-
teristic emblem of the Gauls, (Fig. 75,) namely,
the horned horse, such as occurred also on the
coinage of the Tene. There is seen, moreover,
on the face opposite to that which bears the
clasp of suspension a sort of granulation, which
3§ sometimes reminds us of shagreen skin, and at
Figure 75 other times of such damasKeened work as modern
armorers obtain by the use of acids. These ornaments and designs have, in an
; ethnographic point of view, a much greater importanee than the
swords themselves, seeing that thus far they are exclusively pe-
culiar to the age of iron, while the form of the blade has been
preserved during the subsequent epochs.
Together with swords and lances, we find at the Téne consider-
able numbers of javelins of iron, of small dimensions, (10 to 12
centimetres,) and of much less finished workmanship, without the
median ridge, but with a simple socket, (Fig. 76,) in which is
{sometimes found the nail which fastened it to the staff. These
javelins are in all respects similar to those of the collection of
Alise. From the trials which have been made at Saint-Germain,
under the direction of the Emperor Napoleon, it is apparent that
these javelins could have no‘efliciency but as missiles, which were
launched by means of a thong known by the name of amentum.t
These points are, in fact, too light to have pertained to javelins
thrown by hand; while the experiments made by direction of the
Emperor prove that a light shaft which the hand could project
but twenty metres at most, might attain by the help of the amentum
a distance of eighty metres.~ On the other hand, these instru-
ments are executed with so slight a degree of elaboration as to
have rendered the losing a number of them a matter of small con-
sideration. It would hence appear that there were among the
Ficure 76.
* They are composed of very simple elements, namely, the undulating line, the circle,
and the triangle, recalling at times, by their combinations, the paraphs of our ancient calli-
graphists. There is something about them which, according to the learned antiquary of
Zurich, would remind one of the ornaments on the arms and utensils of the later Celtic
period as these have been delineated by. M. Franks. (Kemble, Hore ferales, p. 122.)
t See the figure of a warrior launching a javelin with the amentum, publ lished by M.
Merimée, from panathenaic amphora in the British Museum. (Revue Archeologique,
1560, p. QU.
“There have ee taken at different times from the palafitte of Téne plates of iron with a
median swelling, and having the sides furnished with nails which attached them to a piece
of wood. M. Keller regards them, with much reason, as parts of a buckler. (Table XII,
figure 12.)
t Verchere de Reffye, les Armes d’Alise. (Revue Archaologique. )
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 391
Gauls troops exercised in launching the javelin by means of the amenttim,
as others launched stones or other projectiles by means of thesling. (Fig. 77.*)
Figure 77,
Of the pilum no trace has been hitherto found at the Téne, which would tend
to prove that this kind of arm was not a Gallic weapon, and that those which
have been found intermixed with the Gallic javelins and swords in the trenches
of Alise are derived from the Roman legions, as well as the slender lances
bearing a cross-bar near the socket, and which are supposed to have been the
lances of horsemen. Neither are the iron arrows, so abundant at Alise, found
at the Téne,t nor the short swords terminating in a sharp point, with a median
enlargement, like the blades of the age of bronze, and which were designed, doubt-
less, like these last, for thrusting. On the other hand, the large lances in form
of halberts, which have been above described, are thus far peculiar to the Téne,
and have as yet been nowhere found in the Gauls. What approaches them
nearest are certain flame-formed lance-heads of the collection of Alise.
UTENSILS
of iron, without being very numerous, are yet deserving of attentive conside-
ration. The most frequent are a sort of boat-hooks, (for pushing boats in shal-
low places,) which have been sometimes improperly taken for the heads of pikes.
They are found at the Téne and at Bied, near Colombier. Most of them have
the form represented by Fig. 78 ; some are simply cylindrical. It is not unusual
to find in the socket the end of the wooden pole with the nail which secured it.
The sickle of this epoch has the form of those of our own time, though
rather less curved, while it is much larger than the same implement of the age
of bronze, and is without ornament, (Fig. 79.) We also possess two scythes,
with the collar for attaching the handle, and the curved heel, (Fig. 80,) a proof
that it was adapted for a long handle, and for mowing. The curve is the same
with that of our scythes, but the dimensions are a third less, (35 centimetres.)
A particular interest attaches to these implements, for, as they are exclusively
intended for mowing grass,ft we are authorized to conclude that their owners
*M. Vogt, the eminent anthropologist of Geneva, has just communicated to us the ex-
istence of a design altogether similar on the great mosaic of Pompeii, now one of the orna-
ments of the Museo Reale of Naples, and which represents one of the battles of Alexander.
The javelin is thereseen with other arms in the foreground of the tablet. The amentum may
oe pian recognized, forming a short, but quite wide, bi-colored loop nearly at the middle
of the stati.
t The absence of all traces of the arrow would seem to indicate that the people from whom
these remains are derived made no use of the bow. M. F. Keller remarks, with reference to
this fact, that the bow is not mentioned by Diodorus among the arms of the Gauls. It was
probably replaced by the javelin.
¢ It is only in modern times that the scythe has begun to be made use of for reaping grain.
892 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
wére in a condition to require a provision of hay, and wére consequently rearers
of cattle. The aze of the epoch of iron is larger and stronger than the celt or
_Figure 78. Figure 83. Figure 84. Figure 82.
hatchet of the age of bronze; it has no longer four pinions like the true celt,
but the handle is adapted to a sort of socket formed by the junction, more or
Figure 80,
less complete, of two wings, (Fig. 81;) its edge is at the same time much wider.
A. specimen of somewhat different form, with a socket complete and circular, has
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 393
been found at the station of Font, and is in the collection of M. Otz, at Cortail-
lod. In the collection of M. Schwab is a specimen, thus far unique, of the ordi-
nary hatchet with a circular hole; it was taken GEN
from the Téne, and does not differ from the
Roman axe. Fragments of iron brid/e-bits
sometimes occur at the Téne, not differing
much from those used in subsequent epochs.
M. Schwab possesses a complete one. The
lake has also furnished iron horseshoes, of
which we possess a specimen remarkably slen-
der, from the Téne; others, which are not,
however, derived from that station, but from
a locality on terra firma near the shore, (the
terriere de Marin,) have an undulated edge,
the undulations having proceeded from the
thrust occasioned by the holes of the nails. In
the same palafitte there has been lately dis-
covered a sort of pike, slightly incurvated,
which might have served as a ploughshare,
(Fig. 82;) for it would seem to zs too heavy {|
to answer for a boat-hook,weighing, as it does,
not less than four kilogrammes. The collec
tion of M. Schwab, at Bienne, contains a pot
or saucepan taken from the 'T’éne, which is of ee
wrought bronze. Is it authentic? Knives Figure 81.
are not wanting, but they have not in general the elegance of those of the age of
bronze. They are simple blades, usually straight and quite broad, with a tongue
which entered into a handle of wood or horn. There is also in the collection of
M. Schwab a pair of scissors, with an elastic handle like those now used in shear-
ing sheep. In our own possession is a sort of iron stewpan, which presents
numerous traces of reparation, a proof that some importance was attached to it.
ORNAMENTS AND OBJECTS OF APPAREL.
Atthe epoch which weare considering, iron had not only'replaced bronze forarms
and domestic utensils; it appears to have been so highly regarded, perhaps on
account of its novelty, as to have been employed even where bronze would have
been more appropriate, as for objects of the toilette. It is true that these objects
are relatively less abundant than in the stations of the age of bronze, and com-
prise rather useful articles than those of mere fantasy. ‘Thus, we find neither
rings nor ornaments for the ears, and we have thus far recovered but one small
hair-pin, which itself might have been derived from the .preceding age, for it is
of bronze. Ornaments of detail, it would seem, were not in request; on the
other hand, elegance of form was affected, as is attested by a multitude of objects
which have descended to us. Of this number are the fbule or clasps of mantles,
(Figs. 83 and 84.) We are in possession of a numerous series of them, pre-
senting variations of every kind, but all based on the same principle of the elastic
spiral,* which is more or less complicated, according to the number of convolu-
tions. They are of all dimensions, from six to twelve centimetres in length, and
have sometimes the principal stem ornamented. Most of them are in a perfect
* The so-called epingles d’hopital, which have been recently so much vaunted, depend
upon the same principle. They are the Gallic fibula, without its elegance.
894 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
state, and might serve for use to-day. Allare provided with a groove to recetve
the end of the pin and prevent pricking. This clasp is different both from that
of the Etruseans and that of the Romans, but is perfectly similar to those of
Alise. If, as seems probable, it served for the same purpose, we are justified in
concluding that those who owned it wore also the toga or mantle. The same
clasp, likewise, is found at Tiefenau and at the Wylerfeld, near Berne, accompa-
nied, in this last locality, by glass bracelets, which make part of the collection
at Berne. Colonel Schwab owns one of these clasps, the studs of which are of
bronze. Analogous forms occur also in the tombs. We have seen in the col-
lection of M. Troyon small clasps of bronze, very similar to those of our figure
83; the same form is found at Hallstadt.
RINGS.
We possess a great number of these, both plain and ornamented, but the use
made of them is yet imperfectly known. Some probably served as buckles or
Figure 85.
clasps for the girdle, (Figs. 85 and 86;)
others, especially the circular rings, still
await interpretation. Most of them are
too small to have been intended for brace-
lets ; while others again are divided into
sections, (Fig. 87,) conveying the idea f%
that they constituted a sort of annular f
money like the small rings of the age of
bronze. From the same locality have ¢
been taken nippers of very finished work-
manship, in the shape of our tweezers, \
but longer, and destined, no doubt, for
depilatory purposes, for which they might
serve even now, (lig. 88.) To these
should be added certain very broad and
flat plates, with a stem neatly fashioned; Se oR
the purpose of which is unknown, but Figure 87.
which, from their tenuity, we are disposed to regard as razors, (Fig. 89.) M.
Cis
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 395
Keller inclines to the opinion that they were tools of the currier. The thick-
ness of the blade is represented by Fig. 89a.
OIL
til
ALE
ie
&
Rg
We
cee
Figure 89. Figure 89a.
OBJECTS IN BRONZE.
The station of the Téne has furnished us with some objects in bronze which
at first glance may seem incongruous in the midst of all this assemblage of uten-
sils and arms of iron, but these articles, though of the same metal, have nothing
in common with those of the properly called age of bronze. It has been seen
that the utensils of that age are characterized by having been run in moulds;
those in question are wrought; they are garnitures for the helmet, the saddle, or
some other object. The chemical composition of the bronze is much the same
as that of the preceding age.*
PRECIOUS METALS.
It is quite certain that the Gauls were acquainted with gold and silver ; but in
this respect the tombs are richer than the palafittes, which have as yet furnished
mere traces of those metals.
" @LASS AND ENAMEL.
“It is equally apparent, from explorations in the Gallic tombs, that glass was
in extensive use in the age of iron. The palafittes leave, however, much to be
desired in this respect, having hitherto yielded only some fragments of colored
glass. At the palafitte of Nidau beads of an enamelled paste have been brought
to light, and are supposed to have formed portions of necklaces, in which they
alternated with beads of amber, as in the tombs of the epoch.
© A fragment of a bronze plate (probably the ornament of acasque or helmet) is composed,
according to an analysis made by M. Fellenberg, of the following: Copper, 86.30 per 100;
~ tin, 13.03; lead, 0.34; iron, 0.18; nickel, 0.15.
396 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
COINS.
.
We were so fortunate, last year, (1864,) as to recover from the station of the
Teéne the first lacustrian money, (Fig. 90.) This consisted of genuine Gallic
coins, bearing on the obverse the effigy of a etioon
man in profile, on the reverse the eharacteristic
image of the horned horse, which has some-
times been regarded as a bull or he-goat, and
which was probably only an allegory, a fan-
tastic animal, serving perhaps as an ensign, as ,
we still exhibit the unicorn and griffon in our Figure 90.
escutcheons. These coins, to the number of
five, (one of which has been deposited in the museum of Neuchatel, and another
in that of Saint-Germain,) are all of the same type, but with slight variations in
the figure of the horse and effigy of the human head, which is different on
each piece, representing probably five different chiefs. The coins, which bear
no legend, are of bronze, simply run in moulds, united with one another by a
neck, after the manner in which children cast their leaden playthings. ‘The two
seams of the neck, which united the corresponding pieces, are distinguishable in
all. This type of Gallic money is to be met with quite frequently, not only in.
France, but in Switzerland, as will be apparent on comparing them with the
collection of drawings by Dr. Meyer of Zurich.* Very similar ones exist from
Tiefenau, near Berne, where they are associated with others bearing the efligy
of Diana and Apollo, and the impress of Marseilles. Besides those coins in
-bronze, there have been taken from the palafitte of the Téne some of gold and
silver; among others, a small gold piece which is quite frequent in Switzerland,
being a bad imitation of the philippics of Macedon; on the obverse is exhibited
a head of Apollo with a crown of laurel, on the reverse a diga with the head of
a bird on the chariot, and some Greek letters referring to the name of Philip.
Coins of silver, like those of Tiefenau, have also been announced. ‘The Roman
coins of the T'éne are an as, a Tiberius, and a Claudius, the last being in excellent
preservation ; it is a copper piece of the size of a sous, and would indicate that
the station had existed till the middle of the first century.
On the other hand, there have been found neither in the palafitte of the Tene
nor at Tiefenau those chains of iron or copper to which, according to Diodorus
Siculus, were suspended the swords of the Gauls,t nor yet those plates of gold
and silver which decorated their girdles.
Of pottery there was no deficiency in the age of iron. We have collected at
the Téne a quantity of fragments of black or half baked pottery, which does
not differ sensibly from that.of the age of bronze... Together with this, which is
eminently lacustrian in character, occur vessels made with the wheel, as well as
red pottery or that baked in the kiln, such as amphoras, big-bellied vessels with
handles, fragments of vases of terra sigillata, and a quantity of Roman tiles
which, if they bear the number of no legion, attest no less the presence of Roman
_ stations. According to M. Keller, the art of constructing kilns of brick, like
the use of mortar, was unknown to the Helvetians and to the Gauls in general,
who must have possessed only cottages of wood covered with shingles or thatch.
It was the Romans who introduced the art on this side the Alps; so that the
presence of tiles and vases of terra sigillata does but corroborate the indication
afforded by the coin of Claudius, namely, that certain stations on pile-work have
* Mittheilungen der antiquarischen Gesellschaft, vol. xv.
tIt is possible, however, that the two rings of the collection of M. Schwab, which are
represented by M. Troyon, (pl. xv, fig. 3,) and were taken from the Tene, may be relics of
a Gallic chain.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 397
continued to exist under the Roman domination.* One might be tempted, in
view of the quantity of large tiles found among the piles‘of the Téne, to suppose
that they covered the structures of that station, although a roof of tiles does not
very well comport with huts of wood built upon simple piles.
M. Troyon does not hesitate to assign to the first age of iron certain very
curious potteries, which form part of the collection of Col. Schwab. These are
fragments of large dishes ornamented on the inside with red and black paintings
representing sometimes concentric bands, sometimes triangles or squares, and
reminding us of pottery of the same kind found with various objects of iron in
the tumuli of eastern Switzerland. It should not be lost sight of, however,
that the station of Nidau, whence these objects BRE constitutes a repository
of several epochs, among which that of iron of the Gallic period is perhaps least
competently represented, since the large swords and most of the objects which
elsewhere accompany the latter are there/wanting, while, on the other hand, this
painted pottery is at present a stranger to the palafitte of the Téne and to other
repositories of authentic Gallic origin. From these considerations we cannot
regard them as characteristic of the age with which we are at present oecupied.
Skeletons of animals are less abundant than in the stations of the preceding
ages; yet they are not absent. The bones of the horse particularly are numer-
ous. Neither are other domestic animals wanting, but they have not yet been
made the subject of special study, any more than the remains of the wild animals
which accompany them.
It is but recently that we have been successful in procuring the first human
relics of this epoch. They are the bones of the trunk, of the members, and,
what is more important, a skull almost complete, which we propose to describe
elsewhere in detail, and of which we shall give here but a sketch, (Fig. 91.)
Fignre 91a. Figure 916.
We content ourselves, then, with saying that in size it is quite large, but of a
conformation far from advantageous, very long, extremely flattened on top, with
an enormous occipital development, while the forehead is so low as to appear
almost absent. In this respect it is not superior to the skulls of the two previous
ages, if it be not even inferior to them. No skull is to be found in the work of
Messrs. Rutimeyer and His so unfavorably formed. It pertains, however, to the
group of Helvetian skulls, and is of the so-called type of Sion, to which it most
nearly approximates.
* An analogous consequence may be drawn from the discovery, recently made by M.
Rabut, of a vase bearing a Roman inscription, in the midst of the station of Chatillon, at the
lake of Bourget. (See Rabut, Habitations lacustres de la Savoie, page 21.)
‘
398 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
The bones of the members, especially
those of the thigh and hip, of which we
possess a certain number, have been the
subject of detailed study by our colleague,
Dr. Guillaume; they indicate a race of
men whose stature attained 1™.90, and
who were consequently of more than aver-
age height. The teeth, which are all pre
served, present a rather singular peculiar
ity, inasmuch as not only the incisors, but
even the canines, are greatly worn, as if
they too had served for mastication, (Fig.
92.) The same circumstance has been remarked in jaw-bones taken from
ancient tombs.
Figure 92.
COTEMPORANEOUS ANTIQUITIES OF THE PALAFITTES OF THE AGE OF IRON.
It is almost idle to insist on the existence of establishments on terra firma cotem-
poraneous with the palafittes of the age of iron, when it is once understood that
the antiquities of the Téne are of Gallic origin, for history teaches us that the
Helvetians inhabited cities which they burned when they emigrated into the Gauls;
but nothing indicates that these cities were lacustrian constructions or settle
ments upon piles. It must be admitted, on the contrary, that the palafitte of the
Teéne, supposing that it existed at the epoch of the Helvetian emigration, was
the exception, and not the rule, of the epoch of bronze.*
Unfortunately, we know neither the history nor even site of the twelve Hel-
vetian cities. We are consequently reduced to the necessity of seeking in the
tombs the tumuli, and the so-called battle-fields, equivalents for the arms and
utensils which characterize the palafittes of our lakes at the epoch of iron. The
number of the tombs which are referred to the age of iron or the Gallic epoch is
considerable. But on examining their remains more closely, we cannot fail to
be convinced that the identification is often determined in a very incomplete
manner. From the fact that a tomb contains a weapon or object of ornament
which somewhat approaches those of our palafittes, it does not follow that it is
cotemporaneous. As in paleontology, it is not a single object which suffices to
establish with certainty the age of a repository ; it is necessary that there should
be a conformity in the collective objects. In this respect, we scarcely know, in
Switzerland, other antiquities than those of Tiefenau and Wylerfeld, which are
identical with those of the Téne. On the other hand, the tombs too often con-
tain objects unknown to our palafittes to make it prudent to refer them at present
to the same epoch. The same doubts exist for us in regard to the great tumuli,
(Cairns or Erdberger.) In return, a part of the arms found in the trenches of
Alise-Sainte-Reine present, as we have seen above, too striking a resemblance
to those of the 'Téne not to be referred to the same people, notwithstanding the
contrary opinion of some eminent archzxologists, who choose to see therein the
relics of a later epoch.t
RECAPITULATION.
The age of iron, as it appears in our palafittes, is characterized by the
following features: 1. The appearance of iron and its general use for arms,
* The new station just discovered at Unternhldingen, on Lake Constance, and which is
formed of some 10,000 piles, contains objects in iron, (knives, lance-points, clasps, rings, )
together with others in bronze and stone. This station will, perhaps, throw new light on
the transition of one of these ages to another, and especially that of the age of bronze to the
age of iron,
tJ. Quicherat, Examen des armes trouves a Alise-Sainte- Reine.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 399
utensils, and even objects of apparel. 2. The application of peculiar pro-
cesses in the manufacture of swords of iron, similar to Damascus blades. 3.
A particular system of ornamentation very different from that of the age of
bronze, consisting especially of figures applied to the sheaths of swords. 4
The appearance of coins with an effigy. 5. The use of clasps of iron with a
spiral spring. 6. Wrought bronze introduced into general use.*
Having thus indicated the prominent points which constitute the criterion of
the age of iron, such as it appears in the palafittes of our lake, it will not, per
haps, be useless to signalize briefly the objects which are wanting, since these
negative characters are not without their importance in a comparative study.
We first recognize that the most characteristic designs, such as are observed on
the sheaths of swords or on the vases, are much less complicated than those
which decorate the objects taken from a considerable number of tombs, referred,
wrongfully perhaps, to this epoch. We have not yet discovered in the palafittes
of the Téne those armlets covered with fine engravings, nor those disks with
concentric circles, still less those cinctures of bronze, preseuting casts of small
human figures and quadrupeds, (Troyon, Habztations lacustres, Figs. 23, 21,
35, and 36,) which exist at Hallstadt and in certain cairns of Switzerland ;
nothing, in a word, which approaches those overloaded ornaments so frequent
in Helveto-Burgundian and Merovingian tombs. The palafittes of the age of
iron are also much more frugal as regards objects of apparel than the tombs,
Many of the objects which it has been agreed to term Etruscan, and which are
very abundant in the north as well as at Hallstadt, are wholly absent, especially
the clasps with a double spiral, the bracelets of bronze like collars, as well as
that variety of ear-drops ane chains which distinguish the ancient tombs of our
environs. We may mention, further, the complete absence of that particular
kind of design representing a circle with a point in the middle, which is fre-
uently found at Hallstadt inthe Etruscan necropoles, and even on the walls of
the dolmens of Bretagne. Lastly, the palafitte of the Téne, equally with that
of Tiefenau, has never furnished scramasax nor true spar.
IV.—RELATIVE AGE OF THE Karey OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUC-
TIONS.
We should but imperfectly satisfy the curiosity of our readers if we did not
attempt to answer a very natural question which must occur to every one: From
what epoch do the constructions on piles take their date ?
It is beyond doubt that the duration of each of the periods we have been
reviewing was very long. They bear each their peculiar stamp, which can be
impressed only by time, among populations which had a fixed residence, and
whose prolonged sojourn in the different stations of our lake is attested by a
considerable accumulation of ruins. It is equally certain that the lacustrian
constructions ascend to a very remote epoch, since there exists no tradition, no
legend which makes any allusion to them; since ancient chronieles are wholly
silent with regard to them, and none of the authors of antiquity who have spoken
of Helvetia make any mention of them. It is idle, therefore, to aim at assigning
to them precise dates; it is as much as can be expected if the latter phases of
* We might be tempted to add the potter’s wheel, as well as red bricks baked in the kiln,
the occurrence of which at the Tene is beyond a doubt. It was in fact, the opinion which
we pronounced in the former edition of this work. But having reflected thereon, we are dis-
posed to adopt the opinion of our friend, M. Keller, who regards these two branches of in-
dustry as of Roman importation, though probably anterior to the invasion.
400 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
this long period may be brought into some connexion with our historical epoch
We know scarcely more than that with us, as in the north of Europe, the age
of stone preceded the age of bronze, as this preceded the age of iron.*
AGE OF THE PALAFITTES OF STONE.
The teneviere or palafittes of the age of stone, from the very fact that they
are the most ancient, are least susceptible of a chronological determination. As
in geology, there can be no question here except of a relative chronology. If it
is beyond doubt that the palafittes of the age of stone are anterior to those of the
age of bronze, it is not less certain, on the other hand, that they are posterior to
the first traces of man as revealed to us by modern geological researches, more
especially: a, at the epoch of the hatchets of Moulin-Quignon and of Abbeville,
when man was a cotemporary of the mammoth; 4, at the epoch of the osseous
breccias of the Pyrenees, when MM. Lartet and Christy show us man associated
with the reindeer and carving on its horns the image of some domestic animals
which he possessed, including the reindeer itself ;t c, in the kbkkenmédings of
Denmark, which contain no trace of cereals or cultivated fruits, and in which we
find, as regards domestic animals, only the dog; d, in the turf-pits of Iceland
and of the mouth of the Somme, which contain the great-horned elk, (cervus
megaloceras.) , All these epochs, if it be that they are distinct, possessed only
the hatchet rudely cut by blows, while that of our tenevieres is always ground
and smooth.
If more precise data respecting the epoch of the tenevieres are ever obtained,
it will be through the study of deposits, rather than from written documents.
As an essay towards this geological chronology, we already possess some con-
tributions. M. Morlott has taken advantage of a section made in constructing
the railroad across the cone of dejection of the Tinniere, near Villeneuve, to study
the structure of the cone. He has recognized, we are assured, the traces of
three epochs distinctly superposed—the Roman epoch, the epoch of bronze, and
the epoch of stone, each represented by an ancient stratum. By comparing the
depths of these different beds, he has been led to assign to the age of bronze an
antiquity of from 29 to 42 centuries, and to the age of stone, one of from 47 to
70 centuries. M. Gillieron§ likewise, froma study of the lake of Bienne, has
arrived, as has been already seen, at a result nearly analogous, since he has ear-
ried back the station of stone of the bridge of Thielle to at least 675 centuries.
* Some authors, relying on the fact that at Alise the arms of the three eras are found asso-
ciated in the same foss, arrows of stone with those of bronze and iron, have thought themselves
justified in calling into question the succession of ages above mentioned. But it must not be
forgotten that Alise was the theatre of a conflict in which were engaged troops drawn from
every part of Gaul, a portion of whom might well be greatly in arrear as regards their arma-
ment. Thus, in 1815, our fathers saw in the Russian army, Cossacks armed with the bow
and arrows, beside troops better equipped. From the fact that there have been improvements
in successive ages we cannot cone ide that these improvements have been everywhere simul-
taneous in the ancient world. Hence we should not be surprised if it were shown that the
lacustrian populations of Italy had already reached the age of bronze, when those of our lakes
were still at the age of stone, just as it is probable that iron was known in Etruria earlier
than in Helvetia. According to William of Poitiers, arms of stone were in use even in the
eleventh century, at the battle of Hastings. (Jactant Angli cuspides et diversorum generum
tela, sevissimas quoque secures et lignis imposita saxa.)
t According to the latest researches of M. Lartet, the mammoth is also found there.
$ Etudes geologico-archéologiques. Bulletin de la Soc. Vaudoise. Tom. VI, p. 325.
§ Notice sur les habitations lacustres du pont de Thielle. Actes dela Soc. jurassienne d’emu-
lation, 1860. M. Troyon, on the other hand, has arrived at a much lower number in esti-
mating the age of the pile-works of Uttins, near Yverdon, namely, at fifteen centuries only
before our era. But, according to a recent memoir of M. Jayet, this calculation is inadmissi-
ble, because the establishment of Uttins must have existed in a lagoon.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. A01L
AGE OF THE PALAFITTES OF BRONZE.
The uncertainty would be nearly as great in regard to the age of the palafittes
of bronze as of those of stone, if in this inquiry we were restricted to the stations
of Switzerland. The antiquities of these stations had hitherto found their an-
alogue only in the north of Europe, on the shores of the Baltic; but. there, also,
they are without any positive connexion with the written history of the country,
which does not ascend very far. If, then, there exists anywhere a connexion
between the age of bronze and history, it might be looked for rather to the south,
in Italy, where we find the seat of the most ancient populations of Europe.
But no lacustrian constructions had been indicated in Italy. Desiring to be en-
lightened on this subject, we visited, in 1860, the lakes of Lombardy, and were
not long in verifying the existence of pile-works and antique objects, altogether
similar to our own, in the peat-mosses of the Lago Maggiore. Since that time,
these researches have been prosecuted with as much success as zeal by M. Moro,
as well as by M. B. Gastaldi, who has given us an excellent work on the lacas-
trian antiquities of Italy.* We have ourselves more recently (1863) explored
the lake of Varése, in company with MM. Stoppani and G. de Mortillet, nor
were we disappointed in discovering several stations of the age of stone, as well
as manifest traces of that of bronze. One of these stations is the small isle (iso-
letta) on which the family Litta has reared a pleasure-house. Although larger
than the isle of the little lake of Inkwyl, near Soleure, the isoletta is, like*the
other, artificial, so that to this day we are deriving benefit from labor performed
by the people of the age of stone. Still later, a whole series of new stations has
been discovered in this same lake of Varése, as well as several in the small lakes
of Brianza.t Lake Garda also contains well characterized palafittes, which were
brought to light through works executed some years ago around the fortress of.
Peschiera. Among objects in metal, collected under the superintendence of M.
de Silber, an Austrian officer, and which now form part of the museum of an-
tiquities of Munich, some are of copper, the rest of bronze.f
The researches of M. Paolo Lioy§ have recently revealed not less curious
palafittes of the age of stone in the peat-mosses of Lake Fimon, near Vicenza.
Add to this, that in 1864 we a ae pe in discovering lacustrian stations in all
respects similar to our own in the lakes of Bavaria. Through the liberality of
the Bavarian government, these researches are continued, and already construe-
tions have been announced in six lakes,|| most of which ascend to the age of
stone, though some are of the age of bronze, especially at Lake Starnberg, near
the isle of Roses. This isle offers a counterpart of the isoletta of Lake Varése,
in being artificial like the latter. Our agent has there recovered, together with
numerous relics of pottery, a fine bronze pin, which forms part of the public col-
lection of Munich. There had previously been found, in digging the foundations
of the royal chateau on the island, Roman as well as other more recent objects,
which would seem to prove that this isle has not ceased to be inhabited since
its formation by the first possessors of the soil, in the age of stone.
In consequence of these discoveries, the Academy of Sciences of Vienna judged
that the time had come for undertaking researches also in the lakes of Austria.
. M. Hochstetter, the eminent traveller and geologist, having been charged with
the exploration of the lakes of Carinthia, soon encountered traces of lacustrian
constructions in several of them, especially those of Worth, d’Ossiach, and the
* Nuovi cenni sugli oggetti di alia antichitd, Torino, 1862. ;
+ Stoppani, Atti della Socicta di Scienze naturali., vol. VY. In Lake Varése are the stations
Keller, Desor, Bodio, Bardello, Cazzago, and Isolina.
¢ Mittheilungen der antig. Gesellschaft in Zurich, vol. XIV. Fifth report of M. Keller.
§ Le abitazioni della etd della pietra nel lago di Fimonnel Vicentino: Acts of the Veuetian
Institute, 1864, 1865.
| Siebold. Pfahlbauten in Baiern, in the Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Munich.
26s
402 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
small lake of Keutschach to the south of Lake Worth. The relics collected, as
yet not numerous, are associated with stony shallows, which recall our tene-
vieres, and hence indicate the age of stone.* The marshes of Pomerania
also, it would seem, are about to furnish their contingent; in the circle of Lub-
tow have just been discovered palafittes in all respects analogous to those of
Robenhausen. Here two archeological strata are recognized. In the lower are
found fragments of pottery, vases with figures, axes in serpentine, silex and
amphibole, a chisel with circular socket of bronze, horns of the stag and roe,
carbonized grains, especially of wheat, barley, and peas. In the upper stratum,
which is very distinct from the former, are found also utensils of iron. We shall
receive, no doubt, without delay, more detailed information respecting these in-
teresting discoveries. The lakes of France, apart from those of Savoy,t have
not yet been explored in a persistent manner. There is good reason to suppose,
however, that when the peat beds and ponds, which are so numerous in many
departments, shall have been attentively examined, traces will be eventually de-
tected of our different lacustrian ages, for it is searcely possible that Gaul should
have been unoccupied while numerous tribes existed at the foot of the Alps.
The skilful explorations of MM. Strobel and Pignorini in regard to the pala-
fittes of Italy are well known.¢ In the Parmesan are small hills, which bear
the name of Montz, and from the sides of which is taken a sort of ammoniacal
earth, mixed with cinders, called terra mara, which serves as a fertilizer for
me&dows. In excavating a gallery in one of these monti, M. Strobel, assisted
by M. Pignorini, found posts supporting a sort of floor, and between the posts
objects of bronze, in all points similar to those of our lakes, accompanied by
earthen vessels of very careful workmanship, although fabricated without the
help of the wheel § Consequently this artificial hill, with its fertilizing earth,
which encloses the remains of an age evidently later, (Etruscan and Ligurian,)
has for its nucleus and origin a construction on piles of the age of bronze, whence
it must be concluded that the age of bronze is anterior to the establishment of all
the other populations which have left their remains on the flanks of these hills.
The objects found at these different stations, those of Lago Maggiore, described
by M. Gastaldi, those we have ourselves collected at the lake of Varese, those of
the hill of Castione in the Parmesan, of the Veronese, are sufficiently numerous
and well characterized to leave no doubt about their perfect identity with those
of the Swiss lakes. The lakes of Italy, the plain of the Po, and the Veronese
have consequently been strewn, at a certain epoch, with constructions on piles,
erected by populations having the same usages, the same customs, and to all
appearance pertaining to the same stock. But can it be admitted that the
Roman authors, so many of whom knew and appreciated the beautiful sites of
the lakes of Italy, that Pliny, among others, who had his country seat on the
banks of Lake Como, would have neglected to mention lacustrian constructions
in the vicinage, and perhaps under the windows of his mansion, so litle sparing
as he was of details respecting the men and things of his time? If, then, this
celebrated writer had not a single word to bequeath to us upon lacustrian habi-
tations, we feel authorized to conclude that these constructions existed no longer
———s
* Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of Vienna, vol. LI, Bericht tiher Nachforschungen
nach Pfahlbauten in den Seen von Kdérnthen und Krain, by Professor Hochstetter.
+ See on the palafittes of the lake of Bourget the excellent memoir by M. Laurent Rabut,
Halitations lacustres de la Savoie, with an atlas of 16 plates: Chambery, 1864. M. Rabut
still continues the sheets of this work, availing himself of the valuable assistance of M.
Costa de Beauregard.
{ Pignorini and Strobel, Die Terramara-Lager der Emilia, Mittheilungen der antiq. Gesell-
schaft in Zitrich, vol. XIV, Fifth Report of M. Keller.
§ A similar mound formed of the débris of different ages has been lately discovered by M.
Pignorini, at Basilicanova of Montechiarugolo, in the Parmesan. See M. G. de Mortellet,
Materiauz, t. I, p. 68.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 403
at that date, (seventy-nine years after Christ,) but that they had even perished
from the memory of men. At the. same time, the fact that we find the same
constructions and the same utensils in the Milanese and Venetia sufliciently
proclaims to us that the inhabitants of the lakes of Lombardy did not live in
isolation at the foot of the Alps.
The same civilization could not be simultaneously spread over so wide a space
as the plain of the Po and the steppes of the Alps, without also penetrating even
to the coasts. The advantages of the sea are too numerous and obvious not to
attract mankind when arrived at a certain degree of culture. This single fact
would suffice at need to justify the opinion that the bays and havens of the
Italian coast must have been inhabited at the epoch of bronze. And as the
utensils and ornaments of that epoch attest a maritime commerce, we hazard
nothing in supposing that this commerce was conducted through the ports of
Liguria and Umbria. It was from these, among others, that the inhabitants
of the stations of Lombardy derived the tin which entered into the composition
of their arms and utensils of bronze, and which could scareely have come ex-
cept from the Cassiterides.* Once discharged on the coasts of Italy, the imported
metal must have been spread abroad, especially among populations having the
Same manners and usages, as was the case on the lakes of the two slopes of the
Alps. The Alpine chain could be no obstacle to these communications. There
is no reason for supposing that the passages of the Alps, St. Bernard, and,St.
Gothard, were at that epoch more impracticable than in our day, at least for
transport on the backs of men and horses, which was probably the only mode
in use. Between this hypothesis and that which derives the bronze of the
Swiss lakes from the shores of the Baltic, we do not think there is room for
hesitation. In favor of these relations between Switzerland and Italy, may be
further alleged the perfect identity of composition of the bronzes, which are
composed only of copper and tin, the latter metal varying, as has been shown
above, from four to twenty per cent.
It has been asked if the preparation of bronze was not an indigenous inven-
tion which had originated on the slopes of the Alps, suggested by the presence
of the ore of copper, which is quite abundant on the south flank of the Pied-
montese chain. In this idea we acquiesced for a moment. But we are met by
the objection that, if this were so, the natives, like the ancient tribes of America,
would have commenced by manufacturing utensils of copper. Yet thus far no
utensils of this metal have been found except a few in the strand of Lake
Garda. The great majority of metallic objects is of bronze, which necessitated
the employment of tin, and this could not be obtained except by commerce,
inasmuch as it is a stranger to the Alps. It would appear, therefore, more nat-
ural to admit that the art of combining tin with copper, in other words that
the manufacture of bronze, was of foreign importation. On this hypothesis it
would still remain to determine whether the principal element, the copper, was
derived, like the tin, from abroad, or whether, as M. Wibel maintains,t the ores
of the country were employed. The first analyses of M. de Fellenberg had
flattered us with an interesting solution by means of the nickel contained in the
bronzes of the Swiss and Italian palafittes, and which characterizes especially.
the ores of the Alpine copper. But it has been seen above that, from the later
researches of this learned chemist, the nickel has not the importance which he
was at first disposed to ascribe to it, seeing that is found also in the bronzes of
the north. It may consequently well be that the copper also was of foreign
* See on this point the supplement to the work of Nilsson, which has lately made its ap-
pearance, 1866, p. 7; also ‘‘ The Cassiterides: an inquiry into the commercial operations of
the Phenicians in western Europe, with particular reference to the British tin trade,” by G.
Smith, London, 1863.
t Die Cultur der Bronze-Zeit, 1861, p. 35 and following.
404 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS |
importation. Now, in view of the prodigious quantity of bronze manufactured
at that epoch, this single branch of commerce must itself have necessitated the
most incessant commercial communications.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE AGE OF BRONZE OF THE NORTH OF EUROPE AND
THAT OF THE PALAFITTES.
In general no hesitation exists in comparing the bronze antiquities of our
palafittes with those found in the tombs of Scandinavia. This parallelism
was natural and, in some sort, inevitable in the inception of lacustrian studies;
indeed, from the moment when for the north of Europe a prehistoric epoch
characterized by bronze was admitted, the coincidence could not but impose
upon the Swiss antiquaries, who had just detected in their own lakes palafittes
which contained in point of metal nothing but bronze. It was the material
much more than the form or structure of the objects which was considered.
-Nor can it be disputed that several of the more common articles—such as
swords, axes, lances, reaping-hooks—have nearly the same form. But, on the
ather hand, it can as little be denied that among the Scandinavian bronzes there
are found numerous objects which are entirely wanting in our palafittes. It is
sufiicient in this respect to compare the figures of the work of Worsaae* with
the arms and utensils of our lakes.
To one who surveys the magnificent collections of the museum of Copenha-
gen or of Mecklenburg, it is evident that the so-called age of bronze there pre-
sents itself with an affluence and finish which would be sought in vain in our pal-
afittes of the second age. On the other hand, it is impossible to overlook a striking
resemblance between the bronzes of the north and those of Hallstadt. This
resemblance applies not only to the form and physiognomy of the objects; it is
equally apparent in certain types of the designs which are common to both
groups, especially the complex helix which is found even on the arms and axes,
(Worsaae, tab. XXVIII, fig. 113, and tab. XXXI, fig. 130,) and which are
wholly unknown to our palafittes. We are at liberty, therefore, to ask whether
the correspondence is not perhaps more complete between these two localities
‘than between the palafittes of our lakes and the tombs ofthe north. But at
Hailstadt, the bronzes are found to be associated with arms and utensils of iron;
‘swords have even been found of which the blade was iron and the hilt of bronze.
Nothing of this sort has yet been recognized in the north, whether they be really
‘absent or have been overlooked by reason of the wasted condition in which iron
is generally found in the tombs. If it be ever demonstrated that the bronzes of
Hallstadt and those of Scandinavia are cotemporary, there could no longer be
room for surprise at the superior perfection of the last, since it would thus be
demonstrated that they pertain to a more recent epoch—one cotemporaneous,
perhaps, with historic populations.
M. Nilsson sustains this opinion in his remarkable work on the primitive peo-
ple of Scandinaviat ‘The learned Swedish archeologist and naturalist recog-
* Nordiske Oldsagen, Copenhagen, 1859. In the number of remarkable objects which
are entirely absent with us, may be cited, among others, the ornamented hatchets, (Tab. 28.,)
curious knives or razors, (Tab. 36,) vessels in bronze of finished workmanship, (Tab. 61,)
shields, (42 and 43,) and, finally, the lurer or trumpets of war, (39 and 40,) of which there
exists no trace in the palafittes. :
It is here, perhaps, that we should mention another figure not less frequent—the circle, with
& point in the middle—which is found alike at Hallstadt, in the north of Europe, and in the
dolmens of Brittany. Should we associate it with the sign of the sun, the Ra of the Egyp-
tians, which oceurs so frequently in the writings and on the monuments of Egypt, or as M.
Nilsson thinks, with the sign of Bal, the sun-god of the Phenicians? This sign is not en-
tirely a stranger to our palafittes; we have observed it on certain bracelets and on the blade
of a knife of bronze, but derived from stations which might not have been completely unknown
to the age of iron. Other antiquaries see in it only an ornament which was recommended ~
by its simplicity and a certain natural elegance.
+ Die Ureinwohner Scandinaviens, 1863.
h
4
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 405
nizes the trace of the Phenicians not only in ancient monuments, but also in the
usages and superstitions of the country, as well as in the names of different
localities which relate, for the most part, to the worship of Baal, the god of the
sun or the Apollo of the Phenicians. The navigator Pythias would thus have
been a Phenician of Marseilles, visiting the stations and colonies strung along
the Scandinavian coasts.
This is not the place to discuss the weight of the arguments on which M.
Nilsson relies. We are quite disposed to admit his conclusions respecting the
part which the Phenicians have played in the north; but it is not necessary on
that account to transport these Phenicians back to the age of bronze, especially
if there is any probability that the bronze objects of Scandinavia, and the tombs
which cover them, date from the age of iron, as is the case with the antiquities
of Hallstadt and those of the Etruscan sepulchres of the Romagna, which form
at this time objects of exploration and study to M. Gozzadini. ‘The Phenicians
certainly knew the use of iron, and it can scarcely be conceived why they should
have excluded it from their commerce on the Scandinavian coasts.
Neither are the Etruscans to be passed by in silence in the present discussion.
Occupying Tuscany and Umbria, they had there arrived at an advanced degree
of civilization which could not fail to react on their neighbors, and to extend it
self, at all events, to the inhabitants of the plain of the Po and foot of the Alps.
We have inspected, with this idea in view, the different collections of Etruscan
antiquities in Italy. It isimpossible to mistake a certain general resemblance
with many of our lacustrian objects ; but this resemblance does not extend itself
to details. The antiquities of Etruria attest a civilization much more advanced,
and particularly processes in metallurgy, which were unknown to the people of
our stations of bronze. The Etruscans, moreover, were acquainted with iron as
well as the Phenicians, and it has already been seen that the composition of
their bronzes is different, since it contains lead, which is entirely a stranger to
our bronze epoch. Now, it can scarcely be admitted that, if the Ktruscans were
the purveyors of the lacustrian stations of the Lago Maggiore, no traces of that
manufacture should be found at those stations, nor any objects in iron, while at
that epoch iron was very widely in use.*
We must look, then, beyond both the Etruscans and Phenicians in attempt-
ing to identify the commerce of the bronze age of our palafittes. It will be the
province of historians to inquire whether, exclusive of Phenicians and Cartha-
genians, there may not have been some maritime and commercial people who
carried on a traffic through the ports of Liguria with the populations of the age
of bronze of the lakes of Italy, before the discovery of iron. We may remark,
in passing, that there is nothing to prove that the Phenicians were the first navi-
gators. History, on the contrary, positively mentions prisoners, under the name
of Tokhari, who were vanquished in a naval battle fought by Rhamses III, in
the thirteenth century before our era,t and whose physiognomy, according to Mor
ton, would indicate the Celtic type. Now, there is room to suppose that if these
Tokhari were energetic enough to measure their strength on the sea with one of
the powerful kings of Egypt, they must, with stronger reason, have been ina
condition to carry on a commerce along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and
perhaps of the Atlantic. If such a commerce really existed before the time of
* According to Homer, Pseudomentes conducted a commerce of brass and iron, (Odyssy
I, 184.) The Bible mentions iron in several places: Chariots of iron, inJudges I, v, 19; a
bed of iron in Deuteronomy V, v, 11; the use of iron is even considered a profanation in
monuments consecrated to worship, Exodus XX, v, 21; Deuteronomy, XXVII, v, 5;
Joshua VI, v, 24, where it is said that after the taking of Jericho, utensils of brass and iron
were carried away. Indeed, agreeably to the Mosaic tradition, the age of iron would ascend
beyond the deluge, since Tubal-Cain even then worked in iron. According to this chrono
ogy, there remains but very little margin for the ages of bronze and of stone, which, never-
theless, by the acknowledgment of every one, embraced very long periods of time.
t Nott and Gliddon, Types of mankind.
406 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
the Phenicians, it would not be limited to the southern slope of the Alps; it’
would have extended also to the people of the age of bronze in Switzerland.
The introduction of bronze would thus ascend to a very high antiquity, doubt-
less beyond the limits of the most ancient European history.
AGE OF THE PALAFITTES OF IRON,
The uncertainty is not so great in regard to the epoch of iron, which appears
to have immediately succeeded the age of bronze. The arms and utensils col-
lected among the piles of Marin have no longer the same exceptional character.
Though still strange to positive history, they connect themselves, nevertheless,
more or less directly, with other events the date of which may be fixed at least
approximately. It is this which, with us, gives to the palafitte of the Tene near
Marin its preponderant importance. It is, in Switzerland, the bond of union
between the lacustrian ages and the commencement of history. In effect, the
utensils and arms of the Téne, for not being Roman, are not therefore altogether
strange to us. It is sufficient to compare them with those which are found near
Berne, at a locality which it has been agreed to designate by the name of the
“battle-field of Tiefenau,” because remains of every kind are there heaped pell-
mell as on the theatre of a conflict. Among these remains, which have been
described by M. Jahn* and sketched by M. de Bonstetten,t are found, in point
of arms, some hundred swords and large lance heads identical with those of the
Téne; in point of utensils, rings, brooches, remains of coats of mail, fragments
of iron bracelets, débris of chariots, all much impaired by oxidation, but bearing
no less the same stamp with the objects of our lacustrian station. Coins are
also found there; coins of silver and pinchbeck, which are not Roman, but Gallic
and Marseillese. Consequently, if the station of the Téne is cotemporary, it
must aseend to the epoch when the Helvetians, who are only a branch of the
Gauls, (though coming from Germany,) inhabited Switzerland.
ORIGIN AND FILIATION OF THE LACUSTRIAN RACES.
The antiquity of the lascustrian races can scarcely be considered without
bringing into view the question of their origin and filiation. "Whence came these
populations which had so great a predilection for the water, and to what stock
do they pertain? However striking this propensity to establish themselves on
the water rather than on terra firma, we still should not exaggerate its import-
ance so far as to conclude from this that all those who constructed palafittes
were necessarily of the same race. Here again there are grounds for a distine-
tion between epochs. It has already been seen that, to all appearance, the pop-
ulations of the age of iron pertain to the great Gallic stock, that they are the
same Helvetians who, under Divicon, beat the Romans, and who, still later,
emigrated under Orgetorix. ‘They were not Autocthones, for ancient authors
apprise us that they proceeded from the banks of the Rhine. On the other
hand, the relies of their civilization, such as they occur in the palafittes of the
Téne, bear in too distinct a manner the Gallic impress not to tempt us at once
to identify them with the similar objects which are furnished by the tombs and
battle-fields of Gaul. But what relation do these Gallic constructors or inhab-
itants of the palafittes of the Téne bear to the populations of the palafittes of
bronze ?
When, in a collection, somewhat complete, of lacustrian antiquities, we con-
sider on one hand the objects collected in the palafittes of the age of bronze,
and on the other those of the age of iron, we are struck with the disparity which
* Memoires de la Soc. Histor. du canton de Berne, t. Il, p. 350.
4Supplement au Recueil d’ Antiquites Suisses, Lausanne, 1860.
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 407
prevails between these two series. Arms, utensils, objects of luxury, all are
different ; on one side, in the series of iron, the stamp of a people active, ener-
getic, looking to practical results; on the other, the care of details, the love of
display, but nothing which announces vigor, sustained action, progress. In-
quirers have been thus led to think that the question here related to two different
races—the one large and vigorous; the other small and feeble—which would
seem to be further corroborated by the difference of size indicated by the arms
and skeletons of the two ages. The tribes of the age of iron would appear to
have arrived as conquerors, bearing with them new elements of the highest im-
portance, among which were iron, bronze of easy purchase, and coined money.
But if, with us, there is a contrast between the antiquities of the age of bronze
and those of iron, the case is not the same elsewhere. Thus, the tombs of Hall-
stadt, in Austria, seem to indicate an epoch of transition between the age of
bronze and that of iron. Numbers of utensils which, with us, are characteristic
of the age of bronze, are found here to be replaced by iron, among others the
celts or axes with four pinions. Other objects bear designs which remind us of
those found in the Etruscan sepulchres. The tombs of Hallstadt would hence
seem to form a sort of transition between the age of iron and the age of bronze.
It is not without reason, therefore, that M. Morlot discerns here a given point, a
chronological horizon, to which recourse may be had for determining the relative
age of certain isolated objects found in Germany, France, Switzerland, and even
in Italy and the north of Europe. (Materiaux, January, 1866, p. 235.)
We are thus led to infer that iron was probably introduced from Italy to the
northern slope of the Alps by the Tyrol. It was ata later period that the Hel-
‘vetians, after having been completely familiarized with its uses and returning
from Germany, carried it into Switzerland.* This invasion would not necessa-
rily have involved the annihilation of the tribes of the age of bronze. It is pos-
sible, even probable, that these last continued to subsist by the side of the con-
querors ; for, as M. Troyon has shown, there are still found in the age of iron,
bracelets of too small an opening to have passed over large hands, or too massive
to have been closed upon the arm.
Nothing indicates that the Helvetians had crossed the Alps, but the relations
which had existed from the age of bronze, and perhaps of stone, between the
two slopes of the chain, did not on that account cease, We find in Switzerland,
as well as in France, in Germany, and as far as the north of Europe, associated
with arms of iron, objects in bronze of exact workmanship, much superior to all
which has been furnished us by the palafittes of the age of bronze. The orna-
ments are no longer simply lines arbitrary and stereotyped; they are imitations
of nature, figures of animals artistically engraved. Such, among others, is the
bronze of Graechwyl, described by M. Jahnt and preserved in the Museum of
Antiquities of Berne. It is impossible here to mistake the oriental type, (Assyr-
rian or Etruscan,) which is corroborated by the chemical analysis made by M.
R. de Fellenberg, and which indicates a considerable proportion of lead. Now
this metal, as has been seen above, is a stranger to the age of bronze pof the
palafittes.
The Helvetians do not appear to have participated in the lacustrian construc-
tions. We know, on the contrary, from the testimony of Cesar, that they lived
in villages which they: burned when they emigrated into the Gauls. If these
villages had been constructed on the water, it can scarcely be believed that the
Romans would have passed in silence by such a peculiarity. The palafitte of
the Téne, near Marin, is but the more interesting as an exception to the rule.
*According to M. Keller, the introduction of iron took place on the arrival of the Helve-
tians, who came not as conquerors, but merely reoccupied their ancient dwelling-places
after being chased by the Germans from the countries of the Rhine and the Maine.
tEtruskische Alterthitmer gefunden in der Schweiz, in the Mitthelbungen der antiq. Gesells-
chaft, Zurich, t. VIII. See, also, Morlot, Etudes Geologico-archgologiques, p. 314.
408 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS
It is as the last echo of an order of things which hadno longer any reason for
existing. We cannot agree with M. Troyon that this was a refuge of the popu-
lations of the age of bronze. The objects there accumulated bear in too high a
degree the Gallic or Helvetic stamp. We should be rather disposed to recog-
nize here a bazaar or an arsenal erected by the Helvetians after their return into
the country, in consequence of the defeat of Bibracte. (See Keller, 6th Report,
page 6.) They may have chosen this lonely corner, in the midst of marshes,
making use of or restoring the ancient piles, there to continue the ancient usages.
This establishment may have acquired much development* and have become
sufiiciently important to attract the Romans, who would introduce some of their
own pursuits, especially the manufacture of bricks and tiles.
RECAPITULATION.
After having endeavored to determine the population of the palafittes of the
iron age of our lakes, by referring it to the great Gallic stock, of which the Hel-
vetians were but a branch, we are naturally led to inquire also the origin of the
tribes who constructed the much more numerous palafittes of the two preceding
ages. Who were they? Whence came they, and what connexion exists be-
tween them and the people of the age of iron? Here, however, positive data
almost entirely failus. ‘The field of conjecture is unlimited, and those whom it
interests may allow themselves free career. Habituated to other methods, we
shall not essay to follow our fellow-laborers into this domain, which has but too
many attractions for some archzologists. We could, indeed, give our readers
a semblance of satisfaction through favor of certain names, by designating, for
example, the populations of the age of bronze under the name of Celts,t and
those of the age of stone under that of Iberians; but this would be without profit
for science, leaving out of view the risk we should run of propagating uncertain,
and, perhaps, erroneous ideas.
The following is all that we are authorized to conclude from the actual state
of our knowledge: Ist, that the inhabitants of our palafittes of bronze were
probably of a different race from that of the age of iron, and smaller; 2d, that
they had commercial relations with maritime races, who conveyed to them at
least a part of the elements of bronze, (the tin,) as well as amber and trinkets
of glass; 3d, that the navigators in this traffic were seemingly neither Phenicians
nor Etruseans, for we may presume that these would not have failed to impart
also the arms and utensils of iron with which they were familiar, and which, when
fallen to the bottom of the lake with other objects of the epoch, would have
there been undoubtedly preserved, like those of the palafittes of the 'Téne.
The uncertainty is necessarily still greater in regard to the populations of
the age of stone, who lived more or less isolated on the borders of our lakes, and
whose commerce with the foreigner is at least very problematical, although they
were already husbandmen and rearers of cattle. Having no theory to propose
as to»their origin, we confine ourselves to regarding them, for the moment, as
the first inhabitants of our soil, reserving to ourselves a recurrence to this ques-
tion, if there should ever be discovered in Switzerland traces of man cotempo-
rary with the reindeer and the mammoth.
Guided by the instinct common to all men, the inhabitants of our tenevieres
would fabricate utensils and arms with the only instruments within reach—silex
and bone. In the course of time they would learn to cultivate the ground, to.
rear cattle, and still later, through their communications with Italy, would be,
initiated in the art of manufacturing bronze. In this manner the knowledge of*
* We shall shortly publish a memoir on the topography of the station of the Tene.
+The reader will remark that we have carefully avoided this name in the course of the
present work,
OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 409
metals would be gradually introduced, without there being need of having
recourse to violent invasion. A little more time would have been required for
this knowledge to penetrate into eastern Switzerland and Germany, but it
would arrive there nevertheless, as certain objects of bronze found at Meilen
and those of the lakes of Bavaria attest. Thanks to the more energetic means
of defence afforded by the new arms, a residence on the water would be no
longer so indispensable. The population would by degrees become established
on terra firma, while preserving the lacustrian constructions only for magazines
or places of assemblage.
On this hypothesis, the passage from the epoch of stone to that of bronze
would be effected without overthrow or violence. It would be the expression
of a slow and gradual progress, such as humanity is naturally inclined to realize
when untoward circumstances do not intervene. This view is strongly corrobo-
rated by the new discoveries made in Italy, where we find the two ages inti-
mately associated, especially in the sepultures of the Milanese. We may also
invoke in its favor the similarity of form of certain customary objects, notwith-
standing the fundamental difference of material. Thus the arrows of the age
of bronze have remained the same with those of the age of stone; the large-
headed pins of the former age are evidently an imitation of those of the latter; |
the pottery has not changed, any more than the manner of preserving fruits
and provisions; finally, the lacustrian constructions have continued, although
with some modifications, as above shown. It would result, then, that it was
the same people who inhabited our soil during the ages of stone and of bronze,
and up to the time of the invasion by the Helvetians.
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EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCHES
ON
THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY, &c.
BY J. PLATEAU, PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY ' OF GHENT.
Translated for the Smithsonian Institution fromthe Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Brussels. -
FIFTH SERIES.
CONTINUED FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1864, PAGE 369.
Theory and description of a new process for the realization of figures of
equilibrium.
§ 1. In the second and fourth series of this treatise I have applied my pro-
cess of the immersion of a liquid mass in another liquid of the same density, and
with which it cannot mingle, to the realization of a part of the figures of equi-
librium, infinite in number, which pertain to a liquid mass supposed to be with-
out weight and in a state of repose. In the present series | shall indicate a
wholly different process, much more simple and commodious, which enables us
to attain the same end, and I shall state a portion of the numerous consequences
which have been afforded by its employment and by the theoretical principles
on which it rests.
§ 2. We will first notice some of the curious results which serve, so to speak,
as a transition between these two processes. It will be remémbered that oil
immersed in the alcoholic liquid easily assumes a laminar form; our liquid poly-
hedrons, for example, (2d series, §§ 31 to 35,) became transformed into systems
of films by the gradual exhaustion of almost the whole of the oil. It will be re-
membered also that these films in general appeared plane, but that the octahe-
dron gave rise to a system of films evidently curved. Curved films were like-
wise developed in the experiment of § 22, 4th series.
Let us recur to this last experiment and repeat in what it consists. After
having formed in the midst of the alcoholic liquid a cylinder of oil between two
equal rings of iron wire, parallel and placed opposite to one another at a distance
considerably less than two-thirds of their diameter, we gradually withdraw liquid
from the mass by means of the small syringe. The surface comprised between
the rings, it will be remembered, becomes then more and more concave, while at
the same time the bases of the figure sink, become plane, then concave, and all
these curvatures continue to increase with the progress of the absorption. Ulti-
mately we see three films produced, of which one has its origin at the centre of
412 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
the figure at the time when the two concave bases approach so as nearly to touch
one another with their summits, and the two others begin to show themselves
when the bases become tangents, along their borders, to the portion of surface
comprised between the rings; the first of these films is plane,
the rest appear conic. Fig. 1 represents a meridian section of
the system, in which the films have already acquired a certain
development, the dotted lines being sections of the planes of the
rings. The films afterwards become more and more extended
by the cautious abstraction of new quantities of oil, and the whole tends,-as a
final result, to give a laminar figure approaching to two truncated cones united
by their small bases; but one or other of the films always breaks before the
little thickish mass which surrounds the plane film and attaches it to the curved
films can be entirely absorbed.
It is here that the experiment stops in the fourth series. Let us now proceed
still further. Suppose it to be the plane film that breaks ; then the oil of which
it is constituted unites itself rapidly with that which formed the rest of the sys-
tem, and the whole is reduced to a single film, somewhat thick, which remains
attached to the circumference of the two rings, presenting, in the meridian di-
i rection, a curvature slightly concave, (Fig. 2.) In comparing
“Hig. 2 figs. 1 and 2, it will be observed that in the first the meridian con-
ee cavity between the two rings is much more considerable than
Z.. ( in the second—a difference easily explained if we consider that
the small thick mass which surrounds the plane film, and whose
meridian section is represented in a, 6, c,and a! Jc’, (Fig. 1,) has three surfaces,
which, for the sake of equilibrium, must respectively exert the same pressure.
Jn effect, the curvature in those which have for meridian lines the arcs a and
ch, is evidently concave in all directions around any one point, while the third,
whose meridian are is ac, presents in each point a convex curvature in the
direction perpendicular to that are; whence it is requisite that, in a state of
‘equilibrium, the concavity of this same are should be much more decided than
that of the ares ab and ch; but it is clear that this condition could not be ful-
filled with a meridian curvature as weak as that in Fig. 2.
§ 3. The liquid figure being thus reduced to a single film,* let us gradually
raise the upper ring. The film will now be extended, and from being rather
thick, as was above said, will become very thin; the meridian concavity will be
more decided, and we shall thus obtain a laminar figure (Fig. 3) whose form re-
, . Fig.3 calls in every respect the surface to which I have given (4th series,
oe § 14) the name of catenord. If we continue to raise the upper
ring, we shall arrive at a point where equilibrium is no longer
possible, and we shall see the figure become spontaneously more
and more constricted, till at last it separates into two parts which
respectively proceed to form a plane film in each of the tworings. In repeating
the experiment, I have attempted to arrest the upper ring precisely at the point
in question, and have found that then the separation of the two rings was per-
ceptibly two-thirds of their diameter; this ratio, it may be remembered, is that
at which I arrived (4th series, § 21) as the limitary height of the partial catenoid.
§ 4. It is a remarkable fact that the disunion of our laminar figure is effected
in exactly the same manner with that of full figures (2d series, § 62 :) at the mo-
ment which precedes this disunion, the constriction is converted into a cylindri-
cal thread which is transformed into spherules of different diameters ; only here
the thread is itself laminar, as well as the large spherule; the other spherules
Ss
*For this it is necessary that, in the preceding system, it should be the plane film which is
broken; if it happened that the rupture took place in one of the curved films, it would re-
main to recommence the experiment, and, in order to operate With certainty, break the plane
film with the point of the syringe a little before the spontaneous rupture is expected te take
place.
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAYITY. 413
are too small to allow of easy verification; in other words, the thread may be
said to constitute a slender tube, and the large spherule is a bubble whose in-
terior is occupied by the alcoholic liquid.
Let us remark, in connexion with this experiment, that nothing is better
adapted for the realization of that part of the nodoid (4th series, § 32) generated
by a node of the meridian line, when this node approximates to a circumference
of acircle (4th series, §35,) than the plane films which, after disunion, occupy tho
two rings. If we pierce one of these plane films in its middle, the liquid ring
which the oil forms in retiring towards the metallic ring has, in relation to the
radius of the latter, but little thickness, (4th series, § 36,) and, as far as can be
judged by the eye, its meridian section is decidedly circular: with a metallic ring,
for,instance, whose radius ig 35"™, the width of the liquid ring, that is, the dis-
tance between its inner and outer circumference, is scarcely 3™™,
§ 5. The facility with which, under the conditions of my experiments, the oil
extends itself in thin films, connected with the fact above mentioned of the
formation of a laminar spherule, naturally led to the belief that large spherical
films of oil might be developed, or, in other words, that hollow bubbles of oil
of considerable size might be obtained in the alcoholic liquid by distending them
with the alcoholic liquid itself, as we obtain, in the air, bubbles of soap by in-
flating them with air. The experiment was completely successful. Analogy
readily suggested the process: in order to form the bubble of oil a small mass
of this liquid was first made to adhere to the lower extremity of an iron tube
plunged vertically to a certain depth in the alcoholic liquid, and the liquid des-
tined to distend the bubble was then slowly poured through the other extremity
of the tube.
§ 6. But this experiment, so simple in principle, exacts a number of precau-
tions which should be here pointed out. To facilitate the introduction of the
alcoholic liquid the tube should be funnel-shaped at its upper end, and, in order
that its position may be stable, it is necessary to adapt to the base of this ex-
pansion an iron disk of 7 to 8 centimetres in diameter, pierced in its.centre by
the tube and made to rest on the neck of the central aperture of the vessel.
The lower orifice of the tube should be furnished with a thin rim of about
1™™.5 in width, the object of which is to prevent the small mass of oil designed
to form the bubble from partially rising along the exterior wall of the tube;
the oil stops at the circumference of the little rim, conformably with the facts
described in § 13 of the 2d series, and arranges itself in a manner perfectly
symmetrical. Nor is the diameter of the tube a matter of indifference; that
which has yielded me the best results is one of 16™. The section of the
system is represented by figure 4.
It is evident that the alcoholic liquid with which the bubble
is to be filled should have precisely the same density with the
exterior liquid. ‘This condition is satisfied without difficulty by
previously withdrawing, through the faucet at the lower part of
the vessel, a portion of the liquid contained in the latter, and using
this portion for the distension of the bubble. It is necessary, of
course, that the liquid should descend slowly and gradually into
the bubble, especially at the commencement; it should, at first,
fall drop by drop, then in a slender thread, and should enter
the funnel near its upper edge, in order that, gliding along the inclined wall be-
fore descending into the tube, it may have less velocity. But if, to accomplish
this operation, we are content to hold in the hand the flask containing the liquid
in question, we shall never succeed, whatever pains be taken, in giving to the
bubble the whole diameter which it might acquire, and this for two reasons: in
the first place, it is impossible to graduate, in a sufficiently regular manner, the
velocity of the flow, and the liquid sometimes arriving in too great abundance,
produces in the interior of the bubble such movements as cause it to burst; in
414 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
the second place, the heat of the hand slightly increases the temperature of the
liquid of the flask, and hence diminishes the density, whence there results a ten-
dency for the bubble to rise, which, occasioning it to shift to one side or another,
and thus altering the symmetry of action, also leads to a rupture. To remove
these two causes of miscarriage, I have had a flask constructed of brass, fur-
nished with a tap and with feet, so that, when placed on the plate of glass
which serves asa cover to the vessel, the orifice of the tap reaches a little higher
than the edge of the funnel ; into this flask I introduce the liquid necessary to
form the bubble, and then let it flow by the tap into the funnel with a velocity
which can be graduated at will, while any influence of the heat of the hand is
at the same time avoided.*
§ 7. By means of the system of apparatus which I have just described@we
obtain without difficulty results greatly developed. By giving to the little mass
of oil attached to the orifice of the tube a diameter of about three centimetres,
I have often realized bubbles 12 centimetres in diameter, and might, doubtless,
have realized still larger had the vessel been of greater capacity. When the
dimensions just stated have been attained, if the funnel be raised by a quick
and dexterous movement, the bubble remains behind, and the film of which it is
formed being elongated by its adhesion to the orifice of the tube, a sort of train
is constituted, which rapidly narrows and separates into two parts; of these the
lower one serves to close and complete the bubble, which is thus left entirely
isolated in the liquid of the vessel. In this state it continues for a longer or
shorter time, amounting sometimes to more than an hour, and then bursts spon-
taneously. Experience will soon indicate the rate of quickness with which the
funnel should be withdrawn: if this be too great, the bubble will burst; if too
small, the bubble rises with the tube and bursts in like manner when the orifice
of the latter quits the surface of the alcoholic liquid. Calculation gives, as the
mean. thickness of the film which forms the bubble in the above case, 0™™.3,.
that is, less than the third of a millimetre; I say the mean thickness, for this is
not uniform, and must, at certain points, be much thinner than 0™™.3.
It may perhaps be asked why, when such a bubble is isolated from the tube,
it does not last indefinitely ; nor do we see in effect in the capillary action any
cause which should induce its rupture. It is necessary, I think, to seek that
cause in a remainder of chemical action exerted by the alcoholic liquid on the
oil. This liquid, no doubt, dissolves the film little by little, so that at the point
where it is thinnest it is eventually quite absorbed for a small part of its‘ extent.
As in the experiments here reported I was not able to carry the expansion of
the bubbles to its absolute limit, I reduced the small initial mass to a diameter
of 2 centimetres. The bubbles then usually broke between the diametres of 7
and 11 centimetres. Still | have sometimes succeeded in augmenting the di-
ameter to as much as 12 centimetres, which would assign to the film a mean
thickness of 0™".09, that is to say, less than the tenth of a millimetre; but I have
never been.able to isolate the bubbles thus attenuated; some would burst spon-
taneously before the funnel had been withdrawn, others while it was being
withdrawn.
§ 8. In § 12 of the first series of these researches, after having described the
* T will here mention quite a curious circumstance. I had at first employed a flask of tin
furnished with a tap of tron, but when the alcoholic liquid contained in this flask accidentally
included small spheres of oil, these, on leaving the tap, sometimes brought over oxide of iron, and
thus becoming heavy, fell with much rapidity to the bottom of the bubble of oil; now, when this
happened, however minute the ferruginous spherule might be, the film of oil was seen, after
some seconds, to become suddenly thin at the place where this spherule rested, the attenua-
tion being propagated by a retreat of the oil to a small distance around the point of con-
tact, and the bubble burst almost simultaneously at this place. The retreat of a part of the
oil at the contact of the ferruginous spherule is doubtless, as we may say in passing, a phe-
aaa of the kind described by M. Dutrochet in his Recherches physiques sur la force épipo-
que.
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. A415
formation of the liquid ring by the action of the centrifugal force, it was said
that during the first moments this ring remains united to the metallic disk by a
very thin pellicle or sheet of oil. We now see to what order of facts this pel-
licle pertains. It is evidently of the same kind with all the films which we
have been considering in the preceding paragraphs of the present memoir. It’
may be remarked here that this pellicle further establishes a difference between
the phenomena produced in my apparatus, phenomena which depend on mole-
cular attraction, and those which belong properly to the domain of astronomy,
and which depend on universal attraction. I shall show in another series that
the liquid figures of my first series differ essentially, by the equation of their
surfaces, from those which would be assumed by a planetary mass supposed to
be fluid. I will repeat, then, what I have already said in note 2 of § 62 of the
second series, namely, that from the experiment in question no induction can
be drawn in favor of a cosmogonic hypothesis.
§9. It results from facts previously described that liquid films withdrawn
from the action of gravity affect, like full masses, determinate figures of equili-
brium. Now, it is easily demonstrable that these figures must be the same in
both cases.
Tf, at a point of one of the two surfaces of such a film, we imagine a right
line perpendicular to that surface, it is clear that, considering the slight thick-
ness of the film, this line may be also regarded as perpendicular to the other
surface. Further, if a plane be made to pass by this common perpendicular, it
will cut the two surfaces by curves which may, without appreciable error, be
taken as identical. Consequently, at the points where the perpendicular pierces
the two surfaces, the curvatures of the two curves will be the same; only, in rela-
tion to the liquid which forms the film, one of these curvatures will be convex
and the other concave. If, then, the radius of the first be designated by p, that
of the second will be — p; and as this result is general, it is equally applicable
to the principal curvatures, that is to say, to the greatest and to the smallest ; so
that if R and R’ represent the two principal radii of curvature at one of the two
points considered, the two principal radii of curvature at the other point will be
—Rand—R’. Hence the capillary pressures respectively corresponding to
these two points, and referred to the unity of, surface, are (2d series, § 4) for
aul yl Ln eae :
the first, Sey Ger) and for the second, P— (qt we) P being the
pressure which a plane surface would occasion, and A a constant which de- .
pends on the nature of the liquid.
Now, these two pressures being opposed, they give a resultant equal to their
difference, namely, to A (tr ). Then if the laminar figure is such that,
av)
in its whole extent, the above resultant is null, it is clear that equilibrium will
exist. If this condition is not fulfilled, the resultants corresponding respec-
tively to the different points of the figure will tend to drive these points in one
direction or the other, but in this case again equilibrium will be possible if the
laminar figure is closed, like the bubbles of § 7, and hence imprisons in its in-
terior a limited mass of alcoholic liquid; for if the figure has then such a form
that the resultants in question have everywhere the same intensity, these forces
will evidently be destroyed by the resistance of the interior alcoholic mass. We
shall express, therefore, the general equation of equilibrium of laminar figures
by establishing the condition that the resultant is null or constant; and for this,
‘ P é : ? i Looe
as the co-efficient A is constant and finite, it will suffice to put Ripa
where the quantity C may be null or constant. Now, this general equation
416 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
being oe that of the equilibrium of full masses, it results that the films assume,
as ae said in advance, the same figures with those masses.
Thus, under the circumstances sof my experiments, it must be possible to form
with films of oil all the figures which I have obtained with full masses of oil, and
it has, in effect, been seen (§ 7) that a film of oil which is not adherent to any
solid system, takes a spherical figure, as does a full mass placed in the same
conditions.
§ 10. I should here present an important remark in reference to the sign of
the constant C and the signification of that sign. HF rom the manner in which I
have just arrived at the general equation of the equilibrium of laminar figures,
Lie 1
itis clear that, in this equation, the quantity — Rt yy way as to its absolute value,
be referred indifferently to one or to the other of the two surfaces of the film.
If we agree to refer it to that one of the two which regards the exterior of the
figure, then when this same quantity, or, what amounts to the same, the con
stant C is positive, the pressure corresponding to ¢he surface in question will be
superior to P—that is to say, to that of a plane surface, and the pressure corre-
sponding to the other surface will be less than that of a plane, and consequently
less than the former; wherefore the resultant, which necessarily acts in the
direction of the greatest of the two forces, will be directed, like that, towards
the interior of the figure. On the other hand, when the interior surface is con-
sidered and C is negative, the greatest of the two pressures will pertain to that
surface, whence it follows that the resultant will be directed towards the exte-
rior. When C, therefore, is positive, the laminar figure will exert a pressure on
the alcoholic mass which it encloses ; and when C is negative, the laminar figure
will, on the contrary, exert a traction on the mass in question; in both cases
the action will be destroyed by the resistance of this mass; finally, when C is
null, the laminar figure will exert neither pressure nor traction.
§ 11. When the laminar figure is closed, the condition of equilibrium has con-
sequently its entire generality, since C may be positive, negative, or null; but if
the figure is not closed, equilibrium can evidently subsist only for C = O.
Hence it follows, for example, that a single film in a solid ring will be in equi-
librium if it is plane, and.we have seen, in effect, in the experiment of § 3, the
two separate films take respectively, in each of the rings, a plane form. For the
same reason, a single film attached to two parallel and opposite rings, like that
which is formed in the experiment just recalled, and which is represented, Fig. 3,
-Inust constitute a portion of a catenoid, as announced by its aspect, and as the
value of the maximum separation of the rings substantiates. Finally, in the
combination of films of Fig. 1 the two short films are necessarily also two por
tions of a catenoid, but taken sufficiently far from their respective cercles de
gorge for their meridian curvature to be little perceptible, and for these films to
seem to appertain to cones.
§ 12. It would be easy to imagine proper means for realizing with our films of
oil all the other figures of equilibrium which have been considered in the second
and fourth series; but this, we shall see, would be useless, inasmuch as we are
directly led by what has been premised to a more simple mode of producing
laminar figures of equilibrium. Let us suppose that we could form, in the air,
liquid films without weight; these films would necessarily take the same figures
with the films of oil formed in the alcoholic mixture. In effect, if the system is
closed and exerts pressures directed towards its interior, the enclosed mass of
air will be compressed until its elasticity neutralizes those pressures, and equi-
librium will then evidently exist if these same pressures are all equal as regards
one another; in other words, if the figure is such that the Se Rt = =e
an equation in which C is positive, be satisfied. If again the system be closed,
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 7
but its action, on the contrary, be directed towards the exterior, the imprisoned
mass of air will be dilated until the assemblage of forces which result from its
elasticity thus diminished and from the action of the films be neutralized by the
external atmospheric pressure, and then, it is clear, the figure will be still in
equilibrium if all these actions are equal, or if the above equation, in which C
will be negative, is satisfied. Lastly, if the system is not closed, the thing is
evident of itself, and it will be remembered that, in this case, equilibrium requires
that C should be null.
Now, the gravitating liquid films which we can develop in the air, soap-
bubbles for instance, being extremely thin, their mass is very small, and conse-
quently the action of gravitation may in general be here regarded as insensible
in relation to that of the molecular forces; whence it follows that the figures
which we would realize with these films should not differ in an appreciable
manner from those which would be constituted by films without weight. We
ought, therefore, to be able to obtain, in the air, with films of soap and water, or
an analogous liquid, the same figures of equilibrium as with films of oil in the
alcoholic mixture, and consequently the figures which would correspond to a
liquid mass, full and withdrawn from the action of gravitation. It is in this that
the new process which I announced at the commencement of the present series
consists.
Thus we arrive at this curious consequence, that with a liquid exposed to the
action of gravitation and in repose we can realize on a great scale all the forms:
of equilibrium which correspond to a liquid mass withdrawn from the action of:
gravitation and equally in repose. Soap-bubbles afford a first example of the-
employment of the process in question: isolated in air, they are spherical as
would be a full liquid mass withdrawn from the action of gravitation and free:
from all adhesion. We shall now show that, in adopting as a more general
example the figures of revolution, it is easy to procure by this same process a
realization of all the figures of equilibrium.
§ 13. Let us first consider the liquid. Films obtained with a simple solution
of soap have but a brief existence unless they are enclosed in a vessel : a soap-
bubble one decimetre in diameter, and formed in the free air of an apartment,
rarely subsists for two minutes; more frequently it bursts in one or even half a
minute ; it was, therefore, important to seek some better liquid, and, after several
fruitless attempts, I was so fortunate as to discover one which furnished, in open
air, films of remarkable persistence. ‘This liquid is formed by mixing, in suit-
able proportions, glycerine, water, and soap. The glycerines which oceur in
commerce differ considerably in purity and concentration, and the preparation of
the mixture consequently varies; but by procuring it from London, where it is
manufactured by a particular process, we obtain, without great expense, a gly-
cerine which appears to be very pure and concentrated; it is almost colorless,
and of a weak odor. I shall confine myself at present to a description of the
mixture prepared from this glycerine; in a note, at the end of the memoir, will
be found an account of the means proper for obtaining satisfactory results with
other qualities of glycerine.
As far as possible we should operate in summer, and when the exterior tem-
perature is at least 66° Fah. Let a portion, by weight, of Marseilles soap,
previously reduced to small parings, be dissolved, at a gentle heat, in forty parts
of distilled water, and, when the solution has cooled, let it be filtered. This
having been done, we may choose between the two following modes of proce-
dure: 1st process —Carefully mix in a flask, by a brisk and protracted agita-
tion, two volumes of glycerine with three volumes of the solution of soap, and
then leave the mixture at rest; this, though limpid at first, after some hours
begins to grow turbid: a light white precipitate is produced, which remains at
first suspended throughout the mass, but which afterwards ascends with extreme
slowness, and, in some days, forms a layer distinctly. separated at the top of the
27 Ss
418 ‘THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
liquid ; the limpid portion is now to be drawn off by means of a siphon which is
primed with a lateral tube, and the preparation is terminated. It is proper to
add, however, that, when the short branch of the siphon is introduced into the
liquid, a portion of the deposit is brought away and forms around the exterior
surface of the tube a sort of reversed cone; it is necessary, therefore, before
priming the siphon, to rid it of this envelope. For this, the whole should be
first left at rest for a quarter of an hour, and then the immersed branch of the
siphon should be slightly shaken right and left; the deposited cone will thus
become detached in small clots which gradually reascend and unite with the
upper layer. 2d process——With the same care as in the former process, let one
volume of glycerine be mixed with three volumes of the solution of soap ; twenty-
four hours afterwards filter, covering the funnel and renewing the filter when
the drops succeed each other only at long intervals; finally, add to the filtered
liquor the quantity of glycerine necessary to establish the proportion of two vol-
umes of glycerine to three of the solution of soap, and the preparation is here
likewise terminated. ‘This second process has the advantage of being somewhat
more expeditious than the first; but if the filtering paper be not of excellent
quality, a sensible portion of the precipitate passes with the liquid, and the re-
sult is not so satisfactory.
The liquid thus prepared, and which I shall call g/ycertc liquid, yields films
of very great persistence: for example, a bubble having a diameter of one deci-
metre, deposited, in the open air of an apartment, on a ring of iron-wire of four
centimetres diameter, previously moistened with the same liquid, as in the ex-
periments which I shall presently describe, is capable, when in complete repose,
of lasting fully three hours. If the season be cold the second process is the
only one that can be employed, and days for operating must be chosen in which
the external temperature is several degrees above zero ; it-is, moreover, necessary
to realize artificially, at least in an approximate degree, the conditions of summer
with regard to the liquids. To this end, the apartment being heated to 66° or
68°, we must first, for an hour or two, keep the flasks which contain sepa-
rately the giycerine and the solution of soap in water maintained at the above
temperature; then the mixture is to be made; after which the flask containing it
should be placed in water at 66° or 68°; aud we provide, whether by fire in the
apartment during the night or by enveloping the exterior vessel with thick folds
of woollen cloth, that the temperature of the mixture shall descend but little
below 19° for twenty-four hours. Filtration follows, the apartment being still
kept warm, and the preparation is finished as above stated; the glycerine which
is added should itself have been kept, for about an hour, at a temperature of 66°
or 68°.
The glyceric liquid may be preserved for nearly a year; it then, in a day or
two, becomes decomposed and completely loses its properties. ‘This decompo-
sition has seemed to me to be unattended by any gaseous disengagement; yet,
as the liquid is of an organic nature, it would seem not improbable that it
‘should sometimes be otherwise; and it will be prudent, in order to avoid a pos-
sible explosion of the flask, to close the latter not too tightly with cork. Just
as the films formed with soap last much longer in a closed vessel than in the
free air, the duration of those of the glyceric liquid becomes much more cen-
siderable when these films are enclosed in like manner, especially if certain pre-
cautions are used; of this we shall see some examples at the end of the present
series, and I shall recur to this subject in a subsequent series.
§ 14. For the realization of figures of revolution the following instruments
are required: Ist, a system of rings of iron wire, seven centimetres in diameter,
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 419
similar to that used for the formation of the laminar catenoid of oil, (§§ 38 and 11.)
a system of which I here reproduce (fig. 5) thedesignin perspective, pig.
although it has been already given in the plates of the second “yn
series; 2d, a systém of rings of the same kind, but having a di-
ameter of only three centimetres ; 3d, asystem of disks seven centi-
metres in diameter, the lower one of which is borne upon three feet
more solid than those of the rings, and issuing from points situated
between the border and the centre, while the upper disk is sustained
by an iron wire fixed perpendicularly at its centre; 4th, a small
table with adjusting screws; 5th, several common clay pipes, and
a soft brush of middle size; 6th, a support consisting of a vertical
rod, along which slides, with little friction, a horizontal arm: it is to
the extremity of this arm that we attach either one of the upper
rings by the end m of the handle of its fork, or the upper disk by the end of the
iron wire which sustains it; for this support I have adopted a cathetometer; the
ring or the disk is attached, by means of an intermediate piece, to the extremity of
the eye-glass. We obtain thus, besides the other conditions, the faculty of read-
ing on the scale of the instrument the quantity by which the ring or the disk is
raised or lowered.
With a view to give more stability to the lower rings, each of them is fixed
by its feet with drops of sealingwax in a small porcelain saucer, and, that ad-
hesion may be better secured, the glaze of the porcelain should be previously
removed with emery at the places which are to receive the wax. When the
rings and disks are new the glyceric liquid adheres imperfectly, and the laminar
figures burst while one is trying to form them, or almost immediately after their
formation; but this difficulty is removed in the following manner: the apparatus
is immersed in nitric acid diluted with four times its volume of water, until the
surface of the pieces in question is perceptibly oxidized, which requires not
more than a minute; they should then be carefully washed with pure water, wiped
with a strip of filtering paper, and left to dry; they are thus rendered fit for service
indefinitely, and will always yield durable figures.
Let us observe now how the experiments are prepared. The cathetometer is
to be first rendered quite vertical, and the upper ring or disk attached to it; if
this ring or disk appear to be not exactly horizontal, the position must be eor-
rected by cautiously bending with pincers the iron wire which sustains it. The
lower piece, whether ring or disk, is then to be placed on the table in such
manner that it shall be vertically below the other, when, by means of the adjusting
screws and by slight displacements of the lower pieee, it is easily managed that
in lowering the upper one the two rings or disks shall exactly cover one another.
Then, after having raised the upper one, we carefully wet each of them with
the glyceric liquid. For the lower ring we use, for this purpose, the brush well
saturated, and for the upper a capsule containing the same liquid, into which
this ring is to be plunged. After the withdrawal of the capsule the ring will
be found to be occupied by a plane film, but this we break. As to the disks,
the liquid is spread with the brush over the whole of the two opposite faces, and
then the liquid contained in the capsule is brought into contact with the moistened
face of the upper disk, after which the capsule is removed. We should add
that in the case of the rings it is necessary to pour a little water in the saucer
which supports the lower one, without which the small portions of glyceric
liquid which fall therein would attack the sealingwax and eventually detach it
from the porcelain.
§ 15. Let us suppose now that it is the laminar catenoid which is to be realized.
We take the system of rings of seven centimetres, and after having made the ar-
rangements above indicated, lower the upper ring until it is separated from the
other by not more than a fraction of a millimetre; then let the brush, well
steeped with glyceric liquid, be several times applied along the whole circuit of
420 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
the two rings, so as to fill the small space left between them. We now raise
the upper ring and a laminar catenoid is seen extending from one to the other.
it will be remembered that between two equal rings whose distance apart is less
than the limitary separation, there are (4th series, § 16) two-catenoids possible
unequally curved, and that when we realize with oil, within the alcoholic li-
quid, a full catenoid, it is always (4, § 18) the one least concave which is produced,
whence I drew the conclusion that the one most concave is unstable. Now, as
might be expected, the laminar catenoid of the experiment of § 3, and of the
present experiment, is always that which is least concave.
By continuing to raise the ring gradually, we attain the point where equi-
librium ceases, and the catenoid is presently seen to contract in the middle and
become converted into two plane films occupying respectively the two rings,
like the laminar catenoid of oil, with this difference, that the phenomenon is ac-
complished in a much shorter time. As with the laminar ecatenoid of oil, like-
wise, there is a formation of a thread and of spherules; and although the thread
cannot be observed because of the rapidity of the transformation, a spherule of
some millimetres in diameter may be seen to fall, at the moment of disunion,
on the lower film, and then rebound for some instants; this spherule then
changes into a bi-convex lens, laminar like itself, engaged by its berder in the
film. At this time the cathetometer gives, as the interval between the two rings,
about 46 millimetres, or very nearly two-thirds of the diameter of the rings,
being the same state of things which presented itself with the laminar catenoid
of oil. |
A remark of importance should here be made in reference to this rupture of
equilibrium. A full limitary catenoid, formed with oil in the alcoholic liquid,
far from disuniting like our laminar catenoid, is, on the contrary, very stable,
(4th series, §§ 18 and 21,) although it be at its limit of stability. I have given in
the second of the paragraphs just cited the reason of this singular fact, and it
may be concluded frem the experiments of § 20 of the same series, that if the
distance of the rings be a little increased, the figure will simply pass to the un-
duloid by a slight modification. But it cannot be so with regard to a laminar
limitary catenoid without bases: for, as has been seen, (§§ 11 and 12 of the
present series,) between two equal rings, parallel and placed opposite to one
another, the only figure of equilibrium possible in a laminar state and unclosed
is the catenoid.* Consequently, in these latter conditions, if the separation of
the two rings exceed by the least quantity that which corresponds to the limitary
catenoid, equilibrium can no longer exist, and the figure must necessarily sepa-
rate into two.
To realize a laminar cylinder, the same.system of rings is employed. After
having raised the upper ring to a sufficient height, we inflate, by means of one
of the pipes, a bubble of about 10 centimetres in diameter; we deposit it on
the lower ring, to which it immediately attaches itself, and withdraw the pipe;
we then lower the upper ring until it touches the bubble, which attaches itself
thereto in like manner ; finally, we again gradually raise this ring, and the bub-
ble, which, thus vertically elongated, loses more and more its lateral meridian
curvature, is converted, at a certain stage of separation of the rings, into a per-
fectly regular cylinder, presenting convex bases like the full cylinders of oil.
We can give the bubble a diameter a little greater; but when it is too consider-
able, the cylindrical form is not attained, whether.because the cylinder which
we would realize exceeds ita limit of stability, or because, if still within that
*At least among figures of revolution; but as, between two rings thus arranged in the
alcoholic liquid, full masses never take other than forms of revolution, it must be ad-
mitted @ priori that the case is the same with films in that liquid or in the air, and experi-
ment verilies it.
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 421
’ limit, it begins to approach it: in this latter case, in effect, the coufigurative
forces becoming of very little intensity, the slight weight of the film exerts a
sensible influence, and the figure shows itself more or less distended in its lower
half and constricted in its upper half.* The tallest cylinder that can be re-
alized in a regular manner with the rings indicated has a height of about 17
centimetres, and will be seen to be within the limit of stability, since this
iar to a height a little greater than the triple of the diameter, (2d series,
§ 46.
Do we propose fo obtaina partial unduloid constricted in its middle, (4th series,
§ 13)? We deposit on the lower ring a bubble having but about nine centi-
metres diameter, lay hold of it, as before, with the upper ring, and then raise
this latter, but we proceed beyond the point where the figure becomes cylin-
drical; this figure now becomes constricted at its middle, the more deeply in
proportion as the ring rises, and thus constitutes the desired unduloid. This,
like the cylinder, shows itself perfectly regular, and its bases are in like man-
ner convex spherical caps. By still raising the upper ring, we reach a point
where equilibrium can no longer exist, and then the figure rapidly narrows at
its middle, where it disunites, becoming transformed into two spherical bubbles
respectively attached to the two rings.
If it is a partial unduloid dilated in the middle, (4th series, § 10,) which we
propose to realize, we make use of the system of rings of three centimetres.
A bubble of about eight centimetres in diameter is to be formed and deposited
on the lower ring; being then laid hold of with the upper ring, when this latter
is elevated the bubble passes by degrees to a figure composed of a dilatation
between two portions of constrictions, and again presenting convex spherical
caps as bases; it is consequently the unduloid in question. In this experiment
it is necessary to stop at a degree of separation of the rings, for which the
tangents at the extreme points of the meridian line are still considerably in-
clined to the axis, and, with this condition, the figure appears regular like the
preceding. If we proceed so far as to approach the point where these tangents
would be vertical, the figure borders upon its limit of stability, (4th series, § 10,)
and, as with regard to the cylinder, the diminution of the configurative forces
leaves a sensible action to the weight of the film; the dilatation then shows
itself a little lower than the middle of the figure.
The realization of the nodoid requires the employment of the system of
disks. We begin by inflating a bubble of a diameter of three or four centi-
metres ; we bring it into contact with the moistened face of the lower disk, to
which, spreading more or less, it immediately adheres, and we continue to in-
flate it until it forms part of a sphere about ten centimetres in diameter; the
pipe is then removed, while the film springs from the very edge of the disk.
The upper disk is now lowered until it touches the summit of the bubble, which
immediately opens at that point, and the film gaining likewise the edge of the
latter disk, forms, from one edge to the other, a portion of the dilatation of an
unduloid. While it is in this state we continue to lower the upper disk, and
when the point is overpassed where the figure would constitute a spherical
zone, we have the partial nodoid sought for, (4th series, §§ 31 and 32). If the
disk be still further lowered, we attain, just as with the full nodoid of oil,
(4, § 31,) a point beyond which the figure ceases to be one of revolution, and is
directed more laterally in proportion as the disk continues to be lowered.
§ 16. These experiments are very’ curious; there is a peculiar charm in con-
templating these slight figures almost reduced to mathematical surfaces, which
* We shall see, in another series, a phenomenon of the same kind produced in regard to
full cylinders of oil, when they are near their limit of stability, and there remains a minute
difference between the densities of the oil and of the alcoholic liquid.
422 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
exhibit themselves .in the most brilliant colars, and which, notwithstanding *
their extreme fragility, endure for so long a time. ‘They are experiments, too,
which may be executed promptly and in the most commodious manner. Here
we have not the embarrassments which, in experiments with full masses of oil,
result from the equalization of the two densities, from variations of temperature
and from the mutual chemical action, however slight, of the two liquids. Still,
there are certain experiments which indispensably require the employment of
oil and the alcoholic liquid. Such are those of my first series; such too is
that for the realization of the figure generated by an entire node of the meridian
line of the nodoid, (4th series, § 27,) &c.
When a series of experiménts with the glyceric liquid is terminated, the
rings or disks should be washed by agitating them in rain-water; to dry them,
the former are placed on filtering paper and the latter wiped. 'T'wo useful pre-
cautions may also be prescribed. When a considerable number of experiments
are conducted in succession, it is well, from time to time, to remoisten the upper
ring ; it will be also proper sometimes to take a new pipe; when the same one
las been used too frequently, the films seem less persistent, doubtless because a
small portion of watery vapor introduced by the breath is condensed on the
inner edge of the bowl of the pipe.
§ 17. It has been already remarked that, in these experiments, the disunion
of the laminar cantenoid is preceded by the formation of a thread, which is
converted into spherules; now the same is the case in the disunion of all the
other laminar figures, just as in that of all the full figures of oil, (2d series, § 62.)
If, after having realized a constricted or a dilated unduloid, we continue to raise
the upper ring until rupture of equilibrium occurs, we shall see, at the instant
of disunion, a spherule some millimetres in diameter escape from the figure and
float in the air of the apartment or fall on the bubble which has formed in the
lower ring, according to the greater or less tenuity of the film which constitutes
the spherule. I shall discuss, in another series, the theory of the production of
these threads, whether full or laminar.
§ 18. We also easily realize, and still by means of the glyceric liquid, the
laminar systems which I obtained with oil, in the interior of the alcoholic
liquid, while using polyhedral frames of iron wire, (2d series, §§ 31 and 35).
For this, it is sufficient to plunge one of these frames into a vessel filled with
the liquid in question, and, having left it therein for some seconds that it may
be thoroughly wetted, withdraw it; it will be found to be occupied by the
laminar system, and always in a complete state—that is, including no inspissated
portions appreciable by the sight. It is to this process that I allude at the end
of § 35 of the 2d series. The frames, like the rings and disks, must be once
treated with diluted nitric acid, (§ 14).
In order to observe conveniently, and without causing agitation, any one of
the laminar systems thus produced, the frame containing it should be placed on
Fig.6 a small structure of iron wire like that which is represented in
perspective at figure 6; the structures which I use are four centi-
metres in width, twelve in length, and two and a half in height.
After each series of experiments the frames should be washed
by passing them through rain-water, and be left to dry on filter
ing paper.
The perfection of the laminar systems realized by the present process admits
of the verification of a peculiarity which had escaped me when I obtained
them with oil in the alcoholic liquid: it was perceived that several of the films
which had then appeared plane have in reality slight curvatures. On the other
hand, the laminar system of the octahedron, which, with oil, was formed of
_
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 423
films visibly curved, is always seen by the new process to be composed of plane
films; this singular difference 1 shall attempt hereafter to ex-
Fig.7 plain. I have here presented as an example (figure 7) the
laminar system of the cubic frame; it is composed of twelve
films, proceeding respectively from the twelve edges, and all
terminating at a single quandrangular /amed/a or little film, situ-
ated at the middle of the assemblage of films. The sides of this
| lamella are slightly curved, as well as all the other liquid edges,
and consequently all the films, with the exception of the lamella,
have feeble curvatures. The curvatures of the liquid edges
which proceed from the summits of the frame are too slight to
be indicated in the figure. By an error, for which I can scarcely
account, this system is badly executed in the plates of the
second series; the central lamella, besides that it is seen obliquely and not in
front, is much too small. I will call to mind that my frame has a length of
seven centimetres to the side. In order to plunge it in the glyceric liquid it is
held by the extremity of the handle of the fork, which is soldered to it.
§ 19. The laminar systems thus developed in the air by means of the glyceric
liquid have excited the admiration of all to whom I have shown them. They
are of a perfect regularity, their liquid edges have an extreme delicacy, and their
films display after some time the richest colors. The arrangement of these films
is governed by simple and uniform laws, of which the following is a statement:
1. From each of the edges of the solid frame proceeds a film. 2. If care be
taken that there be no bubbles of air on the surface of the liquid in the vessel
before immersing the frame, the laminar system will present no space closed on
all sides by films; in other words, each of the films of the system will be in
contact by its two faces with the ambient air. 3. At the same liquid edge not
more than three films ever terminate, and these make with one another equal
angles. 4. When several liquid edges terminate at the same point in the inte-
rior of the system, the edges are always four in number and form between them
equal angles. 5. When the conditions can be fulfilled by plane surfaces, the
films take that form; when this is impossible, all the films, or several of them,
are more or less curved, but always in such a manner as to constitute surfaces
of mean curvature null; the first takes place, for example, in the systems of the
tetrahedron, of the triangular prism, and the octahedron; the second in those of
the cube, the hexagonal prism, &c.
The system of the quadrangular pyramid, such as it is represented in the
plates of the second series, would form an exception to the fourth of the above
laws; but, as I shall show in the next series, when I shall examine the laminar
systems under a theoretical point of view, this is attributable to the fact that in
realizing the system in question with oil within the alcoholic mixture, the ex-
haustion of the oil cannot be carried far enough, whence the liquid edges retain
too great thickness. When the present process is employed, the figure is modi-
fied, and fully satisfies all the laws.
A frame being given as to its form, it might be proposed, as a geometric prob-
lem, to occupy the interior of it with an assemblage of surfaces subject to the
preceding laws; but the solution would be, in general, very difficult. Now, if
we have recourse to experiment, the liquid, in disposing itself in films, plays
the geometer, and it is an extremely curious thing to see it always resolve the
question in a simple and elegant manner, at least if the solution be possible.
For these experiments we may, in strictness, employ, in place of the glyceric
liquid, a simple solution of soap. In that case the figures will have little dura-
tion, but it is always in our power to renew the immersion of the frame, and
thus pursue our observation.
§ 20. I have several times already, in the second and fourth series, insisted
on the principle that, for every figure of equilibrium in relief there is an identi-
424 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
cal figure of equilibrium in concave. Now, these latter figures are evidently
realized by the surfaces of the laminar figures of equilibrium which face towards
the interior: the interior surface of a soap-bubble, for instance, is a spherical
surface in concave; the interior surface of a laminar cylinder constitutes a cylin-
drical surface in concave, &c.
Pressure exerted by a spherical film on the air which it contains —Application.
§ 21. The exterior surface of a laminar sphere being convex in every direction,
the pressure which corresponds to it is greater than that of a plane surface, and
consequently (§ 10) the resultant of the pressures exerted in any point of the
bubble by the two surfaces of the latter is directed towards the interior; whence
it results that the bubble presses on the air which it encloses. It is, indeed,
well known that, when a soap-bubble has been inflated, and while it is still at-
tached to the tube, if the other extremity of this last be left open, the bubble
gradually collapses, expelling the air which it contained through the tube. We
see now what is the precise cause of this expulsion.
§ 22. But we may go further, and determine according to what law it is that
the pressure, exerted by such a bubble on the confined air, depends on the diam-
eter of that bubble. We can compute, moreover, the exact value of the pres-
sure in question for.a bubble having a given diameter and formed of a given
liquid. ‘The pressure corresponding to a point of a laminar figure has (§ 9) for
: : 1 1
its expression A(z + R
have R = R’ = the radius of the sphere. If, therefore, we designate by d
Now, in the case of the spherical figure, we
the diameter of the bubble, the value of the pressure will simply become = ,
always, be it understood, neglecting the slight thickness of the film; whence it
follows that the intensity of the pressure exerted by a laminar spherical bubble
on the air which it confines is in inverse ratio to the diameter of that bubble.
§ 23. This first result established, let us recur to the general expression of
the pressure corresponding to any point of a liquid surface, an expression which
Biers = Tak For a surface of convex spherical curvature, if we des-
uv
ignate by d the diameter of the sphere to which this surface pertains, the above
‘ , 2A :
expression becomes P + —, and for a spherical surface of concave curvature
d
ai! : 2A :
pertaining to a sphere of the same diameter, we shall have P — a Thus, in
the case of the convex surface, the total pressure is the sum of two forces acting
in the same direction—forces, of which one designated by P is the pressure
which a plane surface would exert, and the other represented by ag is the ac-
tion which depends on the curvature. On the contrary, in the case of the concave
surface the total pressure is the difference between two forces acting in opposite
directions, and which are again, one the action P of a plane surface, and the
Oe sees
other Fi which depends on the curvature. Whence it is seen that the quan-
a
FMA Ae, ‘ wih hs
tity which represents the pressure exerted by a spherical film on the air it
encloses, is equal to double the action which proceeds from the curvature of one
or the other surface of the film.
Now, when a liquid rises in a capillary tube, and the diameter of this is suf-
ficiently small, we know that the surface which terminates the column raised
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 425°
does not differ sensibly from a concave hemisphere, whose diameter is conse-
quently equal to that of the tube. Let us recall, moreover, a part of the reason-
ing by which we arrive, in the theory of capillary action, at the law which
connects the height of the column raised with the diameter of the tube. Let us
suppose a pipe excessively slender proceeding from the lowest point of the hem-
ispheric surface in question, descending vertically to the lower orifice of the tube,
then bending horizontally, and finally rising again so as to terminate vertically
at a point of the plane surface of the liquid exterior to the tube. The pressures
corresponding to the two orifices of this little pipe will be, on the one part, P,
and, on the other, P — as if by 2 be designated the diameter of the concave
hemisphere, or, what amounts to the same thing, that of the tube. Now, the
two forces P mutually destroying one another, there remains only the force
Bide il : ;
Tag which, having a sign contrary to that of P, acts consequently from be-
low upwards at the lower point of the concave hemisphere, and it is this which
sustains the weight of the molecular thread contained in the first branch of the
little pipe between the point just mentioned and a point situated at the height
; . : Seas
of the exterior level. This premised, let us remark that the quantity ae the
action which results from the curvature of the concave surface. The double of
: : 4A.
this quantity, or a will therefore express the pressure exerted on the enclosed
air by a laminar sphere or hollow bubble of the diameter 6, and formed of the
same liquid. It thence results that this pressure constitutes a force capable of
sustaining the liquid at a height double that to which it rises in the capillary
tube, and that consequently it would form an equilibrium to the pressure of a
column of the same liquid having that double height. Let us suppose, for the
sake of precision, 0 equal to a millimetre, and designate by / the height at which
the liquid stops in a tube of that diameter. We shall have this new result, that
the pressure exerted on the enclosed air by a hollow bubble formed of a given
liquid and having a diameter of 1™™, would form an equilibrium to that exerted
by a column of this liquid of a height equal to 22. Now, the pressure exerted
by a bubble being in inverse ratio to the diameter thereof, (§ 22,) it follows that
the liquid column which would form an equilibrium to the pressure exerted by
a bubble of any diameter whatever, d, will have a height equal to ae
It would seem at first that this last expression ought to apply equally well
to liquids which sink in capillary tubes, 4 then designating this subsidence, the
tube still being supposed 1™™ in diameter; but it is not altogether so, for that
would require, as is readily seen by the reasonings which precede, that the
surface which terminates the depressed column in the capillary tube should be
sensibly a convex hemisphere; now we know that in the case of mercury this
surface is less curved; according to the observations of M. Béde,* its height is
but about the half of the radius of the tube; whence it follows that the valua-
tion of the pressure yielded by our formula would be too small in regard to such
liquids. It may be considered, however, as a first approximation.
§ 24. Let us take as a measure of the pressure exerted by a bubble the height
of the column of water to which it would form an equilibrium. Then, if p desig-
nates the density of the liquid of which the bubble is formed, that ef water being
, J the heights of the columns of water and of the liquid in question which would
* Memoircs de UV Academie, tome xxv des Memoires couronnés et des Memoires des étrangers.
426 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
form an equilibrium to the same pressure will be to one another in the inverse
ratio of the densities, and, therefore, if the height of the second is = , that of
2
the first will be a8 Hence, designating by p the pressure exerted by a lami-
2hp
d
ing, as we have seen, the density of the liquid which constitutes the film, % the
height to which this liquid rises in a capillary tube 1™™ in diameter, and d the
diameter of the bubble. If, for. example, the bubble be formed of pure water,
we have p—1, and, according to the measurements taken by physicists, we have,
very exactly, h—=30"™; the above formula, therefore, will give, in this case,
nar sphere on the air which it encloses, we obtain definitively p——-, p be-
P=F If we could form a bubble of pure water of one decimeter, or 100™™,
in diameter, the pressure which it would exert would consequently be equal to
0™™.6, or, in other terms, would form an equilibrium to the pressure of a column
of water 0™™.6 in height; the pressure exerted by a bubble of the same liquid
one centimetre, or 10™™, in diameter, would form an equilibrium to that of a
column of water of 6™™. As regards soap-bubbles, their pressures, if the solu-
tion were as weak as possible, would differ very little from those exerted by
bubbles of the same diameters formed of pure water.
For mercury we have p= 13.59, and, according to M. Bede, 4 about equal to
10™ ; the formula would therefore give, for a bubble of mercury p= =
but, from the remark which closes the last paragraph, this value is too weak
and can only be regarded as a first approximation. It only instructs us that,
with an equality of diameter, the pressure of a bubble of mercury would exceed
four times and a half that of a bubble of pure water. For sulphuric ether, we
have p—0.715, and conclude from measurements taken by M. Frankenheim,
( Bibliothéque Universelle, nouvelle serie, III, 1836,) 2 to be very closely equal
a and thus, with an equal diameter, the
pressure of a bubble of sulphuric ether would be but the fourth of that of a
bubble of pure water.
We know that the product Ap, being the product of the capillary height by
the density, is proportional to the molecular attraction of the liquid for itself, or
in other terms, to the cohesion of the liquid; it is, moreover, the result from a
; 4A 2h ; : ,
comparison of the values Bi and oF which have been successively found, in
§ 22 and in the present paragraph, to represent the pressure exerted by a lami-
nar sphere on the air which it contains; heuce we deduce p= 2A, and it will
be remembered that A is the constant capillary ; that is to say, a quantity pro-
1
to 10™".2; whence results p=
2
portional to the cohesion of the liquid. The formula r= indicates, there-
fore, as must be evident, that the pressure exerted by a laminary bubble on the
included air is in the direct ratio of the cohesion of the liquid which constitutes
the film and the inverse ratio of the diameter of the bubble.
§ 25. As early as 1830, a learned American, Dr. Hough, had sought to arrive
at the measure of pressure exerted, whether on a bubble of air contained in
an indefinite liquid or on the air enclosed in a bubble of soap.* He conceives,
* Inquiries into the principles of liquid attraction. (Silliman’s Journal, Ist series, vol.
Xvii, page 86.)
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 427
quite a just idea of the cause of these pressures, which he does not, however,
distinguish from one another, and, in order to appreciate them, sets out, as I
haye done, with a consideration of the concave surface which terminates a col-
umn of the same liquid raised in a capillary tube; but, although an ingenious
observer, he was deficient in a knowledge of the theory of capillary action, and
hence arrives, by reasoning of which the error is palpable, at values and a law
which are necessarily false.
Professor Henry, in a very remarkable verbal communication on the cohesion of
liquids, made in 1844 to the American Philosophical Society,* described experi-
ments by means of which he had sought to measure the pressure exerted on the
internal air by a bubble of soap of a given diameter. According to the account ren-
dered of this communication, the mode of operation adopted by Mr. Henry was
essentially as follows: he availed himself of a glass tube of U form, of small
interior diameter, one of whose branches was bell-shaped at its extremity, and
inflated a soap-bubble extending to the edge of this widened portion; he then
introduced into the tube a certain quantity of water, and the difference of level
in the two branches now gave him the measure of the pressure. Unfortunately
the statement given does not make known the numbers obtained, nor does it
appear that Mr. Henry has subsequently published them. This physicist refers
the phenomenon to its real cause, and states the law which connects the pressure
with the diameter of the bubble; the account does not say whether the experi-
ments verified it. But Mr. Henry considers that a hollow bubble may be assimi-
lated to a full sphere reduced to its compressing surface; that is to say, he
attributes the phenomenon to the action of the exterior surface of the bubble,
without taking into account that of the interior surface. Let us add that, in
the same communication, Mr. Henry has mentioned several experiments which
he had made on the films of soap and water, and which, from the statement
given, would elucidate in a remarkable manner the principles of the capillary
theory. It is much to be regretted that these experiments are not described.
’ Ina memoir presented to the Philomathic Society in 1856, and printed in
1859 in the Comptes Rendus, (tome xlviii, p. 1405,) M. de Tessan maintains
that if the vapor which forms clouds and fogs were composed of vesicles, the air
enclosed in a vesicle of 0.02 millimetre diameter would be subjected, on the
part of this vesicle, to a pressure equivalent to + of an atmosphere. M. de
Tessan does not say in what manner he obtained this valuation; but it is easily
seen that he has fallen into an error analogous to that of Mr. Henry, in the sense
that he pays no attention except to the exterior surface of the liquid pellicle.
According to the formula of the preceding paragraph, the pressure exerted on
the interior air by a bubble of water of 0.02 millimetre diameter would, in fact,
be equivalent to that of a column of water 3 metres in height, which equals
nearly 2 of the atmospheric pressure; M. de Tessan has found then but half the
real value, and we know (§ 23) that this half is the action due to the curvature
of one only of the surfaces of the film.
§ 26. After having obtained the general expression of the pressure exerted
by a laminar sphere on the air which it encloses, it remained for me to submit
my formula to the control of experiment. I have employed, with that view, the
process of Mr. Henry, which means that the pressure was directly measured by
the height of the column of water to which it formed an equilibrium.
From our formula we deduce pd = 2h; for the same liquid and at the same
temperature, the product of the pressure by the diameter of the bubble must,
therefore, be constant, since # and p are so. It is this constancy which I have
* Philosophical Magazine, 1845, vol. xxvi, page 541.
428 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
first sought to verify for bubbles of glyceric liquid of very different diameters.
Fig. 8 The apparatus of which I made use is
a ; ¢ represented at Fig. 8, in vertical pro-
@ jection; a & is the upper part of a sup-
port, whose total height is 40 centime-
tres. On this support is fixed a tube
of copper, c df, to the extremity c of
which is fixed with mastic a bent tube
of glass, cg hk, designed to serve asa
manometer, the interior diameter of
which is about* one centimetre; the
length, d g,; is 20 centimetres. The
copper tube has, at 7, a horizontal
branch, which it was not possible to
represent in the same figure, because
it is directed towards the spectator,
b but which is seen apart at 2m, (Fig. 9.)
To the extremity m is cenrented a glass tube, mm », whose in- 1
terior diameter is but about 2 millimetres. Lastly, at the ex- Fig. 9
tremity f of the copper tube (Fig. 8) is soldered an adjutage ,
of iron, fp, widened below into a small funnel, whose border
has a diameter of 5 millimetres; this funnel has been slightly
oxidized by diluted nitric acid, (§ 14.) m
To use this apparatus, we commence by introducing dis-
tilled water into the manometer g # & in suflicient quantity to
occupy a height of some centimetres in the two branches; we
then convey under the adjutage f p a capsule containing the
liquid destined to form the bubbles; we plunge therein the n
border p of the small funnel, and lower the capsule; then, applying the mouth
to the orifice 7 of the glass tube of the branch, (Fig. 9,) we blow with caution.
A bubble quickly appears at the adjutage, to which. with the precautions to be
presently indicated, is given such a diameter as may be deemed suitable, and
when this is obtained, the orifice ” is carefully closed with a small ball of wax.
The water is now rather higher in the branch 4 & of the manometer (Fig. 8) than
in the branch 2 g, on account of the pressure exerted by the bubble, and it only
remains to measure the difference of the above level and the diameter of the
bubble. For the first of these measurements, we avail ourselves of the cathe-
tometer in the usual manner, and, for the second, we lay the same instrument in
a horizontal position upon suitable supports.
§ 27. These experiments, though very simple in principle, present consid-
erable difficulty in the execution. In the first place, the air which we breathe
into the apparatus is warmer than the ambient air, so that the bubble, after its
formation, becomes a little contracted by reason of the gradual cooling of the
air contained within it and in the tubes of the instrument; whence it is neces-
sary to wait some time before proceeding to measure the diameter. In the
second place, bubbles of great diameter exerting but very feeble pressure, a
small error in the measure of the latter has a considerable influence on the pro-
duct pd ; it is therefore requisite, in order that the results may not oscillate too
greatly around the true value, to stop at a certain limit of the diameter. In the
third place, very small bubbles have also their inconveniences; to bring them to
the desired diameter, and to obviate, at the same time, the contraction by cool-
ing, they are at first inflated much beyond the size they are intended ultimately
to have, and are then left to diminish spontaneously by the expulsion of a part
of the air which they contain; now, when this diminution has reached a certain
point, it becomes very rapid, and much address is required to apply the ball of
wax at the exactly proper moment. Moreover, these small bubbles seem to have
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 429
much less persistence than the large one; they frequently break before the
‘measurements can be accomplished. Lastly, although the manometer of my
instrument has an interior diameter of one centimetre, equilibrium is established
therein very slowly, and great errors would result if no regard were paid to this
circumstance. —
We will further remark that, when a bubble is just formed, there is, in gen-
eral, a drop suspended at its base, the weight of which somewhat elongates the
bubble in a vertical direction. ‘To get rid of this small additional mass without
causing the film to break, we lightly touch it with one of the corners of a piece
of filtering paper; the drop is thus partially absorbed, and the same operation is
repeated with the other corners of the paper. until the excess of liquid has en-
tirely or apparently disappeared. A last remark should be added: if, when a
bubble is to be formed, we plunged the whole funnel of the adjutage into the
liquid, this would ascend, by capillary action, into the interior of the narrow tube
which surmounts this funnel, and would be only, in part, expelled by the breath,
so that, after the inflation of the bubble, it might collect in a small mass at the
lower part of the tube in question, and thus interrupt the communication between
the bubble and the manometer. ‘To avoid this inconvenience, the whole exterior
surface of this little funnel should, at the commencement, be moistened with
glyceric liquid, and then the extreme border only of the funnel be immersed.
Let us see now by what steps we have proceeded. For the largest diameters
of the table to be given in the next paragraph, we first inflated the bubble to
about 6 centimetres, applied the ball of wax, and then waited five minutes; after
which we again opened the tube of insufflation, allowed the bubble to diminish
until it seemed to have the desired diameter, and then applied the wax anew.
For all the smaller diameters we began by inflating the bubble to about 4 cen-
timetres, and after having applied the wax, waited ten minutes before allowing
the diminution to take place. Previous trials had shown that, with these pre-
cautions, the diameter afterwards remained invariable. ‘The bubble on which
it was proposed to operate having thas attained the desired dimension, we re-
moved the drop suspended at its lower part, inclined the instrument to right and
left with a view to moisten well the two branches of the manometer a little above
the two levels, and we measured the diameter. We then allowed the instrument
to remain at rest for ten minutes, in order to give time for the establishment of
the equilibrium of the manometer, when we measured the pressure, and five
minutes afterwards measured it again. If the results of these two measurements
were not exactly the same, we made, after the lapse of another five minutes, a
third measurement, and so on, until two identical results were obtained in suc-
cession, or the difference was in a contrary direction from those preceding; in
the former case, the two last results were considered as giving the value of the
pressure; in the latter, as their difference would be attributable to a slight error
of observation, we assumed, for the value of the pressure, the mean of these two
results.
§ 28. The following table contains the results of these experiments; I have
arranged them, not in the order in which they were obtained, but in the ascend-
ing order of the diameters, and I have distributed them into groups of analogous
430 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
diameters. During the continuance of the operations the temperature varied
from 184.5 to 20°.
Diameters, or | Pressures, or | Products, or
values of d. values ofp. | values of pd.
3
3
3.
oe
2.
0.
0. 8
0. 8:
0.
0.
0. 4
0. £
The general mean of the products is 22.75, and it will be seen that, except
in the last two, the departures from this general mean are inconsiderable, and
that, moreover, they are irregularly distributed. Further, as the first diameter
is to those of the last group very nearly as 1 to 6, these results suffice, I think,
to establish distinctly the constancy of the product pd, and consequently the
law according to which the pressure is in the inverse ratio of the diameter. In
the next series we shall see this law verified by experiments of a wholly
different kind.
I should say here that, in the measurements relating to the smallest bubble,
that, namely, of 7™".55 diameter, I have been constrained to make a slight excep-
tion to the procedure indicated at the end of the preceding paragraph : the second
measurement of the pressure exceeded the first by 0™™.02; it was decided
therefore to take a third measurement after a new interval of five minutes, but
during this time the bubble burst. ‘The attempt was several times made to
renew the experiment, and in each instance one or other of the causes which I
have noticed in regard to very small bubbles interfered with the success. As
the difference 0™".02 was so minute that it might be attributed to an error of
observation ; as, moreover, by reason of this smallness, it was very improbable
that a new excess would be manifested in a third measurement ; as lastly, with
a diameter of that order, such faint differences have no influence except on the
decimal part of the product, I felt authorized to consider the second measure-
ment as giving the value of the pressure, and to retain the result of the experi-
ment. As to the general mean 22.75 of the results of the table, its decimal
part is necessarily a little too high, on account of the excessive value 26.45 of
the last product. As this. product and that which precedes it are, as has been
already remarked, those which alone deviate materially from 22 in their integral
part, it will be admitted, I think, that a nearer approach to the true value will
be made by neglecting these two products and taking the mean of the others,
a mean which is 22.56, or more simply 22.6 ; we shall adopt, then, this last num-
ber for the value of the product pd in regard to the glycerie liquid.
§ 29. It remained to be verified whether this value satisfied our formula,
according to which we have pd=2hp, the quantities p and / being respect-
ively, as has been seen, the density of the liquid and the height which this
liquid would attain in a capillary tube one millimetre in diameter, With this
view, therefore, it was necessary to seek the values of these two quantities in
reference to the glyceric liquid. The density was determined by means of the
areometer of Fahrenheit, at the temperature of 17°, a temperature little inferior
to that of the preceding experiments, and the result was p=1.1065. ‘To
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 431
determine the capillary height, the process of Gay-Lussae was employed, that
is to say, the measurement by the cathetometer, all known precautions being
taken to secure an exact result. The experiment was made at the temperature
of 19°. I had procured a capillary tube having an interior diameter of but a
fraction of a millimetre; for what reason will presently be seen. First,a slight
mark was made with a file upon this tube at about 34 centimetres from one of
its extremities, a distance which had been found, by previous trial with another
fragment of the same tube, to be a little greater than the height of the capillary
column raised; next, the interior of the tube was thoroughly moistened by
pinngmé it several times to the bottom of the vessel containing the glyceric
iquid and shaking it each time on withdrawing it. Lastly, after having wiped
it outside, it was put in place by immersing it in the liquid until the extremity
of the column raised appeared to stop very near the mark, and the point of steel
was lowered so as to be on a level with the exterior liquid. The horizontal
thread of the eye-glass of the cathetometer was then brought into contact with
the image of the lowest point of the concave meniscus, and at intervals of five
minutes this contact was verified and re-established until the point in question
appeared stationary ; nor yet was measurement made until, by the lapse of half
an hour, the perfect immobility of the summit of the column was ascertained.
The movements had been very small, so that the column still terminated near
the mark. The reading at the cathetometer gave, for the distance from the
lowest point of the concave meniscus to the exterior level, 277.35.
This measurement having been taken, the tube was removed, cut at the mark,
and its interior diameter at that point measured by means of a microscope fur-
nished with a micrometer giving directly hundredths of a millimetre. It was
found that the interior section of the tube was slightly elliptical, the greater di-
ameter being 0"™".374, and the smaller 0™".357; the mean was adopted,
namely, 0™™.3655, to represent the interior diameter of the tube assumed to be
eylindrical. ‘To have the true height of the capillary column, it is necessary,
we know, to add to the height of the lowest point of the meniscus the sixth part
of the diameter of the tube, or, in the present case, 0™™.06; the true height of
our column is consequently 27.41. Now, to obtain the height 4 to which
the same liquid would rise in a tube having an interior diameter of exactly a
millimetre, it is sufficient, in virtue of the known law, to multiply the above
height by the diameter of the tube, and thus we find definitively ,=10™".018.
I should here say for what reason I have chosen for the experiment a tube
whose interior diameter is considerably less than a millimetre. The reasoning
by which I arrived (§ 23) at the formula supposes that the surface which ter-
minates the capillary column is hemispherical; now that is not strictly true,
but in a tube so narrow as that which | have employed, the difference is wholly
imperceptible, so that in afterwards calculating, by the law of the inverse ratio
of the elevation to the diameter, the height for a tube one millimetre in diame-
ter, we would have this height such as it would be if the upper surface were
exactly hemispherical.
The values of p and / being thus determined, we deduce therefrom 2hp—=22.17,
a number which differs but little from 22.56, obtained in the preceding para-
graph as the value of the product pd. ‘The formula pd=2hp may therefore be
regarded as verified by experiment, and the verification will appear still more
complete if we consider that the two results are respectively deduced from ele-
ments altogether different. I hope hereafter to obtain new verifications with
other liquids.
432 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
Investigation of a very small limit below which is found, in the glyceric liquid,
the value of the radius of sensible activity of the molecular attraction.
2h
§ 30. The exactness of the formula p= supposes, as we are about to show,
that the film which constitutes the bubble has, at all points, no thickness less
than double the radius of sensible activity of the molecular attraction.
We have seen (§ 23) that the pressure exerted by a bubble on the air which
it encloses is the sum of the actions separately due to the curvatures of its two
faces. On the other hand, we know that, in the case of a full liquid mass, the
capillary pressure exerted by the liquid on itself emanates from all the points of
a superficial stratum having as its thickness the radius of activity in question.
Now, if the thickness of the film which constitutes a bubble is everywhere su-
perior or equal to double that radius, each of the two faces of the film will have
its superficial stratum unimpaired, and the pressure exerted on the enclosed air
will have the value indicated by our formula. But if, at all its points, the film
has a thickness inferior to or double this same radius, the two superficial strata
have not their complete thickness, and the number of molecules comprised in
each of them being thus lessened, these two strata must necessarily exert actions
less strong, and consequently the sum of these, that is to say, the pressure on
the interior air, must be smaller than the formula indicates it to be. Hence it
follows that if, in the experiments of §§ 27 and 28, the thickness of the films
which formed the bubbles had, through the whole extent of these last, descended
below the limit in question, the results would have been too small, but in this
case we should have remarked progressive and continued diminutions in the
pressures ; which, however, never happened, although the color of the bubbles
evinced great tenuity. But all physicists admit that the radius of sensible ac-
tivity of the molecular attraction is excessively minute.
But what precedes permits of our going further, and deducing from experi-
ment a datum on the value of the radius of sensible activity, at least in the
glyceric liquid. When, after having formed at the adjutage of the apparatus
of § 26 a bubble of this liquid, we introduce the adjutage into the interior of a
glass jar, (d0ca/,) the opening of which is then closed by an obturator through
which passes the copper tube df, the bubble always manifests a remarkable phe-
nomenon. If we observe it by placing the eye at the height of its centre, the col-
ors are at first seen ranged in curved bands, whose order indicates a gradual in-
crease of thickness from the adjutage to the base of the bubble: but after a
longer or shorter time this arrangement is modified; we then observe a large
central and circular space colored with a uniform tint and surrounded with nar-
row concentric rings presenting other colors. If we change our position around
the bubble, with the eye still remaining at the height of the centre, the appear-
ances turn with the spectator, and if we place ourselves higher the appearances
still follow the movement of the eye. We must bence conclude that the film,
arrived at this point, has a uniform thickness throughout the whole bubble, with
the exception, always understood, of the very lowest part, where there is con-
stantly a small accumulation of liquid ; the colors of the rings which surround
the central space are evidently referable to the obliquity of vision.* The bub-
ble having once assumed this aspect, preserves it till bursting; only the respective
tints of the central space and of the rings vary progressively, ascending in the
succession of the colors of the rings of Newton, whence it follows that the film
continues to grow thinner, but equally so everywhere, still excepting the small
portion at the base.
Now, after the film has acquired a uniform thinness, if the pressure exerted
on the air within underwent a diminution, this would be evinced by the mano-
"This fact had been remarked by Newton, but only as accidental, in reference to hem
spherical bubbles of soap-water.
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 433
meter, and it would be seen to progress in a continuous manner in proportion to
the ulterior attenuation of the film. In this case, the thickness which the film
had when the diminution of pressure commenced would be determined by the
tinge which the central space presented at that moment, and the half of that
thickness would be the value of the radius of sensible activity of the molecular
attraction. If, on the contrary, the pressure remains constant until the disap-
pearance of the bubble, we may infer from the tint of the central space the final
thickness of the film, and the half of this thickness will constitute at least a
limit, very little below which is to be found the radius in question.
§ 31. I have made, in this view, a great number of experiments, of which I
proceed to give an account. At first a diameter of about four centimetres was
given to the bubble; it was then left to shrink to nearly two centimetres, and
sometimes even to one, before the wax ball was applied. In the first experiment,
the drop was next removed and the adjutage with the bubble introduced into
the interior of a small jar, the orifice of which was simply closed with a disk
of pasteboard; the contact of the horizontal thread of the eye-glass of the
cathetometer with the summit of the image of the surface of the water in one
of the branches of the manometer was now established, and as equilibrium did
not immediately take place (§ 27,) the contact was readjusted from time to time
until it became stationary. Hight bubbles were observed under these cireum-
stances until their disappearance: of these, seven burst before having passed
the first colors of the second order; one only seemed to have attained the in-
digo of that order, but there was some uncertainty as regards this; the great-
est duration was fourteen hours.
As to the contact of the thread of the eye-glass with the image of the surface
of the water, it never, but in one instance, varied in the direction of a diminu-
tion of pressure, but, singularly enough, it sometimes varied by small quanti-
ties in the opposite direction. For one of the bubbles it was ascertained, by
measurements taken before and after these variations, that the pressure had
really somewhat increased. When such a variation was produced, it was with
a certain rapidity, and the manometer afterwards remained stationary, either
until the disappearance of the bubble or until a new variation in the same di-
rection. These variations are not owing to changes in the temperature, for
that of the apartment was very constant, nor do they proceed from an imper-
fect application of the wax, for in that case the augmentation of pressure would
be continuous and accelerated.
§ 32. These experiments alone might have furnished me with a result; but
I was desirous of knowing why the colors of the bubbles proceeded no further.
Led to suspect that a slight chemical action between the iron of the adjutage
and the liquid a little altered the constitution of the latter in the vicinity of the
orifice, I fitted to this orifice, with sealingwax, a piece of glass tube of the
same exterior diameter and with walls suitably thin, and inflated at the free ex-
tremity of the tube a bubble which was introduced, as before, into the small
jar. ‘Then, indeed, things took place after a different and rather curious manner:
the colors proceeded at first even into the third order, after which they retro-
graded gradually to the red and bluish green of the last orders, then grew pale,
and the bubble finally again became white as at the moment vf its formation.
The thickness of the film therefore had been first diminishing, and afterwards
augmenting. ‘The bubble lasted twenty-four hours.
‘This phenomenon would have seemed inexplicable, had not an experiment
which I had made before equipping the adjutage with the piece of glass tube
furnished me the key to its solution. For the experiment referred to, a little
water had been poured into the jar, and the interior walls of this had been also
moistened : now a bubble placed in this atmosphere saturated with watery va-
por had in like manner lasted for twenty-four hours, and had burst without
having emerged from the red and green of the last orders; it had therefore
28 Ss
-
434 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS
absorbed aqueous vapor, and this absorption, which is explained by the
hygrometric property of the glycerine, had continually repaired the diminution
ot thickness due to the descent of the liquid. Now, m the present experiment,
as there was no water in the jar, and hence the atmosphere which surrounded the
bubble was less humid, it might be supposed that the effect of the descent of.
the liquid had at first prevailed over that of the absorption, and that afterwards
it was the contrary which took place. Upon this assumption, I deposited in
the bottom of the dry jar morsels of caustic potash, and contrived by the appli-
cation of a little lard around the orifice of the jar and of the aperture through
which passed the copper tube, that, after the introduction of the bubble, the
pasteboard disk should close the opening hermetically. Further, as the small
quantity of liquid which always accumulates by degrees at the base of the
bubble must contribute by its weight to cause a rupture of the latter, a space
of ten minutes was allowed to elapse before the removal of the drop; the
film had thus already become thinner when it was introduced into the jar, and
the accumulation resulting from the further descent of the liquid would be much
less. Now, under these conditions, the diminution of thickness of the film was
continuous, the bubble lasted for nearly three days, and when it burst, it had
arrived at the transition from the yellow to the white of the first order; it then
presented a central space of a pale yellow tint, surrounded by a whitering. The
level of the water in the observed branch of the manometer underwent small
oscillations, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other, but the last of
them was in the direction of an augmentation of pressure. Although, during
the long duration of this bubble, the temperature of the apartment had neces-
sarily undergone slight changes, the oscillations just mentioned could not be en-
tirely attributed: to these, for, if that had been so, there would have been seen,
after each of the three nights, a movement of the manometer in the direction of
an augmentation of pressure; but the contrary was observed after the first
two nights, and it was only after the third that there was a movement in that
direction. From the progression of these movements it results that if the pres-
sure varied, it was in an irregular manner, in both directions, and terminating
not ina diminution, but an augmentation at least relative; we may therefore
admit, I think, that the final thickness of the film was still superior to double
the radius of sensible activity of the molecular attraction.
§ 33. Let us now see what we may deduce from this last experiment. Ac-
cording to the table given by Newton, the thickness of a film of pure water
which reflects the yellow of the first order is, in millionths of an English inch,
5g, or 5.333, and for the white of the same order 33, or 3.875. We may
therefore take the mean, namely 4.064, as the closely approximative value of
the thickness corresponding, at least in the case of pure water, to the transition
between those colors and the English inch being equal to 25™™.4, this thick-
ness is equivalent to ~7.; of a millimetre. Now we know that, for two dif-
ferent substances, the thickness of the:films which reflect the same tint is In
the inverse ratio of the indices of refraction of those substances. In order
therefore to obtain the real thickness of our film of glycerie liquid, it suffices
to multiply the denominator of the preceding fraction by the ratio of the index
of the glyceric liquid to that of water. I have measured the former approx-
imately by means of a hollow prism a lguides, and have found it equal to
1.377. ‘That of water being 1.336, there results, for the thickness of the gly-
ceric film, z,';4 of a millimetre. The half of this quantity, or ;715,5 of a mil-
limetre, constitutes therefore the limit furnished by the experiment in question.
Hence we arrive at the very probable conclusion, that in the glyceric liquid the
radius of sensible activity of the molecular attraction is less than ,7399 of a
millimetre.
I had proposed to continue this investigation with a view to reach, if possible,
the black tint, and to elucidate the variations of the manometer; but the cold
WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. — 435
season has intervened, diminishing the igonendiers of the bubbles, and I have
been forced to postpone my attempts till a more favorable period.
Note on the preparation of the glyceric liquid with the impure glycerines of
commerce. ;
The first glycerine which I tried was that sold by the apothecaries of Ghent.
It is of an intense yellow color and disagreeable odor, and contains in large
quantity a foreign substance, which I believe to be lime, and of which it is ne-
cessary to rid it. After many fruitless attempts, the following process occurred
to me, and has been attended with considerable success: Mix in a flask a suit-
able quantity of distilled water and an equal quantity of the glycerine in ques-
tion; then introduce into the flask a quantity of Marseilles soap cut in thin
shavings, whose weight should be about a fifteenth of. that of the water; these
shavings remain floating on the liquid. ‘The soap should have been kept in a
moist place; if dry, the action is scarcely appreciable. After five minutes the
flask is to be slowly turned three or four times, when small white particles will
be seen to be detached from the soap and disseminated through the liquid, and
which, when the flask is left at rest, gradually ascend. ‘The slow turning is to
be repeated at intervals of five minutes, for an hour and a half; the particles
become more and more numerous, and eventually and permanently fill the whole
mass. ‘The greater part of the soap remains unattacked, but an excess was
needed in order to present the more surface to the action of the liquid. This is
disengaged from the particles and the excess of soap by passing it through a
filter formed of cotton stuff of close texture; when a new supply of the soap-
shavings equal to the first is introduced, and the turnings are to be repeated as
before for the space of an hour, the particles again form and must be separated
anew by filtering; the liquor now passes in a milky state, but is rendered lim-
pid, or nearly so, by filtering it through paper; the preparation is then eom-
plete. All these operations should be conducted at a time when the outer tem-
perature and that of the apartment are from 18° to 20°; if this last limit be
greatly exceeded the liquid will dissolve too much soap. <A bubble formed of
this liquid and deposited on a ring, as indicated in §§ 13 and 15, may subsist
for perhaps an hour and a half. This liquid, however, has one serious incon-
venience ; at a temperature below 18° it tails altogether to yield bubbles; hence,
when we wish to use it in winter, it is necessary previously to keep the flask
for about an hour in water maintained at 20°. It is needless to add that the
apartment should be warmed.
I have tried, in the second place, a glycerine which came, as I was assured,
from Paris. It has the same color and the same odor with that from Ghent.
When mixed with the solution of soap the compound is at first slightly turbid,
and after some hours becomes very milky. If this liquid be left at rest the
precipitate, as in the case of the glycerine of London, already deseribed, ascends
pean aly: and forms in a few days a distinct layer on the top. Here, also, the
impid liquid should be withdrawn by means of a siphon. The proportions
which I have used with most success are five volumes of glycerine and four of
the same solution of soap employed for the glycerine of London. The liquid
thus obtained yielded bubbles which lasted five quarters of an hour. ‘This trial
was made in autumn, at a time when the See temperature did not rise above
7° or 8°, by operating in a warmed apartment, but without any other precau-
tion. It is probable that the same liquid prepared in summer would furnish
films of a still greater persistence.
I am led to believe, from what I know of the different processes by which the
glycerines of commerce are obtained, that all that can be procured are analogous
to one or other of the three which I have employed; hence it will be seen that
the best course is to obtain the substance from London, provided none as pure
can be found elsewhere.
O.U:T LENE
OF A
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE CLASS OF BIRDS.
BY PROFESSOR W. LILLJEBORG, OF UPSALA.
[From proceedings of Zoological Society of London, for January, 1866. ]
[The following article is believed to present the later views of some of the best systematic
ornithologists in reference to the classification and arrangement of the higher divisions of birds,
such as have been adopted in the main by the highest authorities. It is essentially the same
as has been followed in the recent rearrangement of the mounted birds in the museum of
the Smithsonian Institution.
The article, as written in the original Swedish, was translated some years ago by Professor
Jillson, then of the United States Patent Office, for publication in the annual report of the
Institution, but the MSS. was mislaid in the hands of a gentleman to whom it was intrusted
for the purpose of revision, and never found. The present paper is of later date, and pre-
sented in an English dress to the Zoological Society of London, early in 1866, by the author,
The tables, originally in Latin in this communication, have been translated into English by
Professor Gill.—J. HENRY. J
LITERATURE.
We may particularly mention Chr. L. Nitzsch,* C.J. Sundevall,t G. R.
Gray,t J. Cabanis,§ and C. L. Bonaparte,|| among those that of late years have
devoted their attention to the classification of birds. John Miiller{] has given
au important contribution to this classification by his treatise on the apparatus
of singing in the larynx inferior in a great number of Passeres.
The contribution given by Nitzsch certainly contains only a very short and
incomplete review of the class of birds; but it has, notwithstanding, a particu-
lar scientific value from its attracting attention to the importance that the caro-
tides communes of the birds have in their classification. -
The ornithological system given by Sundevall has the merit of being baged
upon a careful and particular examination of the exterior characters of the
birds, and of, for the first time, calling attention to the importance of the wing-
coverts in classification, and exhibits a correct idea of the designating charac-
ters in the nature of the birds. The structure of the wings generally has been
minutely described in the treatise on these organs, and its importance as regards
* Observationes de Avium arteria carotide communi. Hale, 1829. (Appendix to a pro-
gramme by Prosector Fridericus Blumius Ictus.)
t Ornithologiskt system (Transactions of the Royal Academy of Science of Sweden, for
the year 1835, (printed 1836,) p. 43.) Over foglarnas wingar (ibid. for the year 1843,
(printed 1844,) p. 303.) Svenska foglarna, 1856.
t A List of the Genera of Birds, (London, 1841.) The Genera of Birds, (London, 1844-49.)
§ Ornithologische Notizen (Wiegmann’s Archiv fir Naturgeschichte, 1847, vol. i, pp. 186
and 308.) Museum Heineanum, (Halberstadt, 1850-63.)
|| Conspectus generum avium (Leyden, 1850-57;) Conspectus systematis ornithologiz
(Annales des Science Naturelles, 1857? ;) Tableaux paralléliques des ordres Linnéens, An-
seres, Grallee, et Grallinee, (Paris, 1856.) (Extract from Comptes Rendus des Séances de
) Académie des Sciences; ) besides several other treatises in different magazines.
§] Abhandlungen der konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1847, p. 321.
REVIEW OF BIRDS. 437
classification held forth. As the wings must be considered to be of the highest
importance to a bird, being among those parts that indeed make him a bird, it
is natural that a system in which the structure of the wings has been consid-
ered should be preferable to any other where the wings have been neglected, or
this subject but slightly touched upon, without any minute examination of their
structure. ‘he above-mentioned author has, in his “ Svenska Foglarna,” ob-
served the muscular structure of their feet as important in classification, after
having previously, for the first time, called attention to the same at the meeting
of naturalists in Stockholm, in 1851.
The new genera and species that have been added since Latham’s “ Index
Ornithologicus” was edited had increased to such a number, and their literature
had become so scattered, that such a work as G. R. Gray’s systematic “ List of
the Genera of Birds,” although only a list of names without characters, was
very necessary to science, and the obtaining of the same.also highly beneficial.
The right of priority has generally been observed in this work. The same au-
thor has, in his “Genera of Birds,” given descriptions of the orders, families,
and genera, and even figures of the same. A single species of some genera is
represented by a colored figure; and of others only certain parts, such as the
head or the foot of some typical species, have been figured. This work is cer-
tainly of great value for the study of birds; and the very good figures often
give a necessary explanation to the descriptions of the genera, which at times
are but little distinguishable, and are not given in a diagnostic manner.
Cabanis has, in his ornithological system, given good characters for the ar-
ranged groups, taken partly from J. Miiller’s descriptions of the inferior larynx,
partly trom the nature of the horny covering on the tarsi, first studied by
Keyersling and Blasius, and partly from the number of quills and tail-feathers.
It is principally the order Passeres to which this author has devoted his atten-
tion, and which consequently has obtained an improved classification. It has
been divided into two groups, (Oscines and Clamatores,) and the families have
been carefully limited and arranged. This work, with that of Sundevall, may
rightly be considered most important in the classification of birds.
The numerous contributions to this classification that have been made by
Bonaparte are valuable as giving minute registers of families and species, show-
ing an unusual knowledge of the species, and a sharp distinction between the
genera, and often arranging these in a manner corresponding with the demands
of the natural affinity ; but they are generally only registers of names, often
giving the characters for the species, but very seldom for the higher groups.
Bonaparte has published, in the “Transactions of the Linnean Society,”
XViii, p. 258, a systematic arrangement of the class of birds, together with the
classes of the other vertebrated animals in general. The first class has been
divided into two sub-classes—Insessores and Grallatores. he first of these
corresponds fully with the one arranged by us under the same name, and the
latter includes both Gralle and Natatores. This classification corresponds also
with the one given here, in the Longipennes having their place between the
Steganopodes and the Pygopodes. Characters of the orders, families, and sub-
families are also given.
After this brief reference to the literature, we will proceed to a synoptic
statement of the principles upon which the systematic arrangement here given
rests.
PRINCIPLES.
We have prefeyred the progressive method, as it seems to us to be the most
rational, from its correspondence with the physiological and geological develop-
ment. We therefore commence the system with the lowest, and finish it with
the highest forms. ;
458 REVIEW OF BIRDS.
Irritability seems to us to be the most distinguishing character for birds; and
this should consequently be taken into consideration more than others with re-
gard to their classification. ‘The swimmers seem to us the lowest, from their
showing a tendency to the lowest form of vertebrated animals—the fish form.
in the Aptenodytide, where the wings resemble fins, and where they, as in all
other diving birds, serve as such, we have this form most strongly designated.
The heavy, clumsy structure, with small wings and short legs, also makes them
generally less active than other birds, and shows a lower development of the
type of bird. ‘This, however, is not the case with all the swimmers; and the
order Longipennes gives us instances where swimmers possess a high degree of
activity.
The Passerine birds (Passeres) seem to us to possess the highest irritability,
and to be those in which the nature of birds has reached its highest develop-
ment. We do not by irritability mean the muscular strength alone, but vivacity
and activity generally. Where this is most manifold, most changing and constant,
it is the most developed. We find in the Passeres “the power to stay and move
with ease as well on the ground as in the trees or in the air, and to make their
presence known by characteristic melodious notes,” (Sundevall;) we find them
in a constant and manifold motion, and they let us constantly hear their notes
either as song or as affectionate voices. The birds of prey have generally been
placed highest, and been considered the most developed, in consequence of their
muscular strength and strong flight, and their thereby supposed high degree of
irritability ; but by keeping them in captivity we find at once that the birds of
prey are dull birds, and that they, as regards irritability, are far behind the
Passeres. ‘They remain for a long time silent and quiet, and do not generally
show any activity, unless they are frightened or driven by appetite for food.
The Passerine birds, on the contrary, are in captivity constantly in motion, and
let us incessantly hear their lively song and affectionate voices. Besides, we
cannot in a system place the birds of prey far from the lower groups of the
Columbine and the Gallinaceous sections without violating natural affinities
based upon important characters. They correspond with these lower groups as
regards external characters in the nature of their wing-coverts, and, as regards
interior anatomical characters, in the nature of their carotides communes. Some
of them, for instance those of the Vulturine section, exhibit, with regard to their
form, a near analogy with some of those of the two mentioned groups. Wemay,
for instance, compare a Condor with a Turkey. A system that places the dirty
Vultures highest does not seem to us to indicate a correct idea of the nature of
the birds.
If we do not regard flight, which is common to almost all birds, but consider
birds with regard to the various other ways of motion for which they especially
are shaped, and for which their structure is also adapted, we find easily that
these in general may be comprehended in three different modes, viz: Ist, swim-
ming on the water; 2d, running on the ground; and 3d, climbing and jumping
on the branches of trees.* The hinder extremities or the legs exhibit, in con-
formity with this, three different forms. This induces us to divide the class of
birds into three primary groups or sub-classes: 1, Natatores; 2, Cursores; 3,
Insessores. Those belonging to the third group generally move more with the
assistance of their wings than the others, except some forms of the Natatores,
and show generally a higher development of the bird-type. This group also
furnishes the greatest variety of forms. The Natatores include about 550
species, the Cursores 900, and the Insessores 6,900, (Bonaparte. )
Nitzsch has, in the treatise referred to, divided the class of birds into three
groups: Aves aéree, Aves terrestres, and Aves aquatice, which in a reverse
order correspond with the three groups here arranged; but he differs from us in
including the Columbine birds among the Terrestres, and the Grallatorial birds
* The second mode appears an intermediate link between the first and third.
REVIEW OF BIRDS. 439
among the Aquatics, and in considering the Struthionine birds a distinct group
from the other three.
There is, as far as experience yet extends, a very remarkable correspondence
between the nature of the upper wing-coverts and of the carotides communes,
‘which adds to the importance of both these characters, which have generally
been but little observed. All those birds that have the large upper wing-coveris
of the first row on the cubitus so short that they do not reach beyond the middle
of the cubital quills, have only one carotis communis, viz., the sinistra. Those
birds in which the above-mentioned wing-coverts form several rows and extend
beyond the’ middle of the cubital quills, have, on the contrary, generally two
carotides communes, viz., one dextra and one sinistra. The only exceptions to
this rule are Cypselus, Trochilus, Merops, one or a few species of Pszttacus,
Rhea, Phenicopterus, Podiceps, and Pelecanus, which, although belonging to
the latter category in regard to the wing-coverts, yet have only one carotis com-
munis. This is the dextra in Phenicopterus. We do not, therefore, hesitate
to consider these two characters to be among the most important in judging of
the affinity of the birds; and they show with certainty that the birds of prey
have not their place at the beginning or at the end of the system.
The Strisores, one of the twelve orders in which we have arranged the class
of birds, includes several birds that we formerly considered should belong to the
Passeres, from their near correspondence in form with the latter. But as they
deviate from them in regard to the upper wing-coverts and the claw of the hind
toe, and sometimes even in regard to the carotides communes, we are of opinion
that they should be regarded as belonging to a different order. They have
been separated from the Passeres by Sundevallf and by Nitzsch; and the former
has arranged them under the order Coccyges, which, according to him, also in-
cludes the Zygodactylt and Columba. 'They are, however, distinct from the
Zygodactyli in the nature of their feet, and cannot be arranged under this order
without depriving it of its most distinguishing character. They seem also to
cause confusion if they are arranged within either of the orders Passeres or
Zygodactyli; and we have therefore considered it right to arrange them as a
distinct order—Strisores, which name was given to them by Cabanis in 1847.
However distinct they seem to be, as well from the Columbine section and the
birds of prey as from the Zygodactyli, it is very difficult to find any character
that sharply and distinctly distinguishes them from these three orders; and we
have been compelled to use a character in the scheme that does not belong to
all, although the majority of them possess it. They appear to be an interme-
diate group between Accipitres, Zygodactyli, and Passeres.
The order Longipennes has generally had a very changeable place in the sys-
tem, sometimes the first among the swimmers, sometimes the last. When the
swimmers are, as here, arranged in two groups according to the form of the
beak, their place is, as will be seen from the scheme, unquestionable, as we of
course must begin with the Pygopodes. The Longipennes approach these very
nearly in the genera Puffinus and Halodroma. Puffinus has, together with
Colymbus and Podiceps, a long pyramidal erect process at the upper end of the
tibia, and the tarsi are compressed like theirs. ‘The genera -Phalacrocoraz and
Mergus form an intermediate link between the Steganopodes and the Lamel-
lirostres.
First Divisiom or Sub-class.
Natatores, Illiger; Sundevall.
Upper part of the crus (tibia and fibula) not free, but drawn in within the
skin that covers the body.* The basis of the hind toe above that of the ante-
t Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Handl. 1843, pp. 375 and 376.
* Some of the Longipennes are said to form an exception to this.
440 REVIEW OF BIRDS.
rior toes, the hind toe sometimes absent. Legs short; and the anterior toes,
sometimes even the hind toes, united by web. The upper large wing-coverts of
the first row on the lower arm (antibrachium) extend in all beyond the middle
of the cubital quills. All, with the exception of Podiceps, have, as far as is
known, two carotides communes.
Group 1. SIMPLICIROSTRES.
The bill without laminez. Doubly monogamous.* <“ Altrices ;” that is, carry
food to their young.
Order 1. PyGoropEs, Illiger.
The legs are placed far back ; and the hind toe is, when it is present, free.
The wings short, hardly extending to the base of the tail. The tail short, or
none at all. Heavy, clumsy birds, that dive well, but walk badly.
Note.—This order contains the typical forms of Natatores.
Order 2. LONGIPENNES, Duméril.
The legs are not so far back; and the hind toe, when there is one, is free.
The wings long, extending more or less beyond the base of the tail. They are
generally light birds, and lie, when swimming, shallow in the water, and can-
not, with a few exceptions, dive, unless they dart from the air into the water,
which power a great many of them possess. They generally fly remarkably
well.
Order 3. STEGANOPODES, Illiger.
The hind toe united to the inner anterior toe by a web, and its base but
slightly raised above that of the anterior toes. ‘The wings and tail rather large,
the former sometimes pointed and sometimes obtuse. Some of these birds are
pelagic, fly remarkably well, and are darting divers; some fly badly, but dive
and swim well. The position of the hind toe enables some of them at times to
sit on the branches of trees and to build their nests there.
Group 2. LAMELLIROSTRES.
The bill with lamine. Generally singly monogamous.t “ Preecoces ;” that
is, do not carry food to their young.
Order 4. LAMELLIROSTRES, Cuvier.
The point of the upper jaw with a so-called nail of the bill; the other part of
the bill covered with a soit skin. The hind toefree. The body generally more
or less thick and heavy. The power of flight sometimes moderate, sometimes
rather inferior. Those that fly best dive badly, or cannot dive at all; the others
lie, when swimming, deep in the water, and dive exceedingly well. Some of
the former are rather fast walkers, and approach in this respect the next divi-
sion.
Second Division or Sub-class.
Cursorgs, Illiger; Sundevall.
The entire crus and the lower part of the femur free. The base of the hind
toe above that of the anterior toes ;¢ the hind toe sometimes missing. The an-
terior toes, when united by a web, are, with very few exceptions, so united only
——
* Both the old ones sit on the eggs, take care of the young, and carry food to them.
t The female alone cares for the young.
t The majority of the Ardeid@ make an exception to this; and these live and build very
often in trees.
REVIEW OF BIRDS. 441
at the base. The large upper wing-coverts of the first row on the lower arm
extend beyond the middle of the cubital quills. They have, with the excep-
tion of Rhea and Phenicopterus, as far as is known, two carotides communes.
Order 5. GRALL&, Linné.
The legs high, and the lower part of the crus without feathers.* The wings
weil adapted for flying. The pectoral bone with a crista. They generally walk
and run with ease or very fast, and mostly live in damp places, near swamps or
on the banks of water-courses. ‘The majority fly fast and with ease; some fly
badly. They live generally in the middle (‘ mittlere,’ Faber) monogamy.t
Preecoces. A great number of the Ardeide are Altrices.
Order 6. BREVIPENNES, Duméril.
The wings more or less rudimentary, and not adapted to flight. Pectoral
bone without crista. A small number of large birds that run fast, and may
be considered typical of the whole group. ‘Their structure exhibits a strong
tendency towards the mammalian. Some are said to live in the middle monog-
amy, others in single monogamy, and others again in polygamy. Precoces.
Order 7. GALLINA, Linné.
The legs of a mediocre height, and the entire crus feathered.t The wings
adapted to flying, but generally rather short and obtuse, and more or less bent.
They run fast; but are easily fatigued by flying, and then hide among rocks,
bushes, grass, &c. Some live in polygamy, but the majority live in middle
Monogamy. LPreecoces.
Ghird Division or Sub-class.
INsEssorEs, Vigors; Bonaparte.
The entire crus and the lower part of femur free. The coat of feathers gen-
erally extends at least to the tarsal joint. The hind toe with its base on a
level with that of the anterior toes,|| and very seldom missing.
Order 8. PULLASTRZ, Sundeyvall.
The bill not covered by a cere at the base, but generally naked there, and
with an inflated skin at the nostrils. The point of the upper jaw rounded, but
very seldom bent down in the form of a hook. Three toes directed forward,
and not united together. The large upper wing-coverts of the first row on the
lower arm extend beyond the middle of the cubital quills. Two carotides com-
munes. The majority fly very fast; some do not fly so well, but these run
fast. The majority live in double monogamy, a few in middle or single monog-
amy (Penelope,) and a few in polygamy (Craz.) The majority are Altrices,
the others Preecoces.
Jote—This order is evidently an intermediate group between Cursores and
Insessores. The Talegalline, Penelopide, and Didunculide exhibit some ten-
dency towards the Accipitres.
* The genus Scolopaz deviates from this.
t Both the old ones attend to their young, but do not carry food to them, letting them,
under their care, hunt for their own food.
¢ The genus Ortyzelos, Vieill., is an exception to this.
§ Didunculus (Pleiodus) deviates from this, and has the lower part of the crus naked.
|| The Cathartini form an exception to this.
442 REVIEW OF BIRDS.
Order 9. Acciprrres, Linn&
The bill covered with a cere at the base, convex towards the point; and the
point of the upper jaw bent down in the form of a hook. The legs strong,
with three anterior toes, which are not united, and are, like the hind toe, armed
with strong bent claws. The wings large, with the large upper wing-coverts
of the first row on the lower arm extending beyond the middle of the cubital
quills. ‘Two carotides communes. They have a strong power of flying, but
run badly,* dnd do not jump. Doubly monogamous. Altrices. Their food
cousists generally of vertebrated animals.
Order 10. STRISORES, Cabanis.
The bill without a cere, hard at the base, without any swollen skin at the
nostrils, and of a variable form. ‘Three anterior toes, which are generally united
at the base, sometimes there united by a web, and seldom free. The hind toe
is at times turned forwards. ‘The claw of the hind toe is smaller than the claw
on the middle anterior toe, (Sundevall.) The large upper wing-coverts of the
first row on the lower arm extend beyond the middle of the cubital quills.
Some of them (Caprimulgus, Coracias, Alcedo) have two carotides communes,
and some (Cypselus, Trochilus, Merops) have only one. Buceros is unknown
as regards its carotides. Some fly remarkably well, others not so well. The
legs are short in most of them, and not well adapted for walking. Doubly
monogamous. Altrices.
Note-—A polymorphic group, that shows a tendency as well towards the
Accipitres and Zygodactyli as towards the Passeres.
Order 11. ZYGODACTYLI, Vieillot.
Two anterior and two hind toes, or sometimes two anterior and one hind toe,t
or one hind toe and three anterior ones, the exterior one of which is turned
backwards. The claws compressed. The large upper wing-coverts of the first
row on the lower arm, except in the Picide and Bucconide, do not extend
beyond the middle of the cubital quills. Some have two carotides communes,
and others (Picus, Ramphastos, Cacatua) only one. The power of flying not
very good. They generally walk badly on the ground; but a great many of
them climb well on the trees, and cling skilfully to the branches. Doubly
monogamous. Altrices.
Order 12. PASSERES, Linné; Sundevall.
Three anterior toes and one hind toe, and the exterior anterior toe generally
at the base united with the middle one. The claw of the hind toe as large as
that of the middle anterior toe; and its long flexor muscle separated from the
muscle that bends the claw phalanx of the anterior toes, (Sundevall.) The large
upper wing-coverts of the first row on the lower arm do not extend beyond
the middle of the cubital quills, and we meet with only one row of greater upper
wing-coverts. As far as known, only one carotis communis, or truncus caroticus
impar, which arises from the left arteria subclavia. Lively and active birds,
with a fast and excellent flight, which move easily as well on the ground as on
the branches of the trees. They generally jump on the ground, and seldom
run. Some of them have a separate muscular apparatus for singing in the
tee inferior and a more or less exquisite song. Doubly monogamous.
ltrices.
* Gypogeranus deviates from this.
t’The thumb or the proper hind toe, which corresponds with the inner hind toe in the
others, is in this case missing, except in the Trogonida.
REVIEW OF BIRDS. 443
Note—This order embraces the typical forms of the group Insessores, and
the birds that generally have the highest degree of development.
In the following tables I have tried to use the most important as well as the
most positive and evident characters, but have in this, like others, met with
much difficulty of finding such of the smaller groups, or families and genera, in
the higher orders. A great many of the characters used are taken from Sunde-
vail; and in the Passeres several from Cabanis. Their validity has first been
fully tested. In consequence of the above-mentioned difficulty we find that
the place in the system of a form in question cannot always be ascertained from
similar tables, as a more minute description is often necessary. It must not,
therefore, be expected that these tables should give an infallible ground for the
determination of the forms belonging to the respective families and sub-families,
but only that they should denote some of the most important characters that
form the basis for the groups, and give an easy review of these groups. Such
a table shows us most plainly what characters are common and what are not. ~
As a great many of the exotic generic forms are not well known to me, I do
not insist that they can be all arranged under the 69 families and 144 sub-
families here charcterized, and that the arrangement of other families or sub-
families is unnecessary; but I believe that a great part of the genera have been
considered. I may mention that the difficulties arising in limiting the families
Corvide, Paride, and Sylvide among the Passeres have induced me to make
these families more comprehensive than they have been.
It seems that the Hpimachini and Paradiseini should together form a separate
family; but I have not been able to find any distinguishing characters, common
to both, that make them distinct from the Corvide. The family Corvide cor-
responds with “cohors Corviformes,” of Sundevall (Sevenska Foglarna) The
Troglodytint include forms of both Troglodyting and Timaline, Cabanis, ex-
cepting some with emarginated bill. The other Liotrichide, Cabanis, are given
to the Sylvide, partly to Lanint and partly to Sylvinz. It seems that the
family Brachypodide as arranged by Cabanis should at least partly be included
in the last-mentioned sub-family (Sylvini,) which, as it also embraces the Syl-
viade, Cabanis, is very rich, and contains about 500 species or more. I even
include the Vireonine, Cabanis, in the Sylvicolind.
REVIEW OF BIRDS.
444
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PRIZE QUESTIONS.
PRIZE QUESTIONS PROPOSED IN 1865 BY THE ROYAL DANISH SOCIETY
OF SCIENCES.
Mathematical class—The theory of rectilinear surfaces has been long since
earried to the height of perfection and elegance, so that not only has the full
and complete distribution of surfaces of this kind into species been divulged, but
for each class also, if the partial differential equation, by means of which classes
are distinguishable among themselves, be supplied, the geometric character of
the several classes may be determined. . On the other hand, the theory of those
surfaces which are generated by a movable circle, and which are hence ealled
“circular surfaces,” has not been so thoroughly considered as is desirable ; for,
although certain surfaces of this kind have been adequately analyzed, and all
are readily susceptible of distribution into species and classes, yet the general
treatment of this branch of the subject has been hitherto neglected. Hence the
Royal Danish Society of Sciences offers its gold medal, of the value of fifty
Danish ducats, for a satisfactory discussion of the following theme:
“The analytical investigation of circular surfaces, with a view to the distri-
bution of all such surfaces into proper species, each of which species again may
be distinctly defined by means of its owa partial differential equation.”
Physical class —It is proposed accurately to determine by actual experiments
what time is required in order that the blood, greatly diminished and diluted
through phlebotomy or arteriotomy, may be restored, both as to the whole
quantity and the quantity of red corpuscles, to its normal condition in the
animal. With this view a series of experiments on some species of mammalia,
nourished with food of a certain quantity and quality, should be instituted; the
alterations in the weight of the whole body should be noted, as well as the
quantities of urea daily secreted.
In order to determine the quantity of blood which, remaining in the animal
after the effusion, cannot be directly measured, it will be competent to apply the
following method: 'The parts, after the spontaneous effusion of blood is ex-
hausted, are to be dissected, macerated, and washed in water to complete dis-
coloration, by which means the blood contained in the colored water may be
determined by using as a means of comparison a portion of the blood which
flowed at the beginning of the experiment, agitated with a certain quantity of
water to a corresponding degree of coloration with the former. For comparing
the red corpuscles also the different relative determinations may be employed
which result from a comparison of the blood agitated with the serum: 1, with
reference to the quantities of solid parts; 2, the quantities of albumen; 3, the
specific weights; and 4, the determination which is obtained trom a comparison
of the quantities of blood necessary to color a certain quantity of water to a
certain degree.
The prize will be the gold medal of the society, with the addition of one
hundred imperiales.
Historical class—'The questions proposed for the preceding year (de con-
ventu Urnehoved) are continued for solution till the next.
Classenian bequest—As it is known that several metals which are deposited
in the electrical way possess peculiar properties which are of no little im-
portance in the technical arts, the society offers a premium of one hundred
452 PRIZE QUESTIONS.
imperiales to the candidate who, upon accurate examination, shall furnish a
comparison of the qualities of metals or compounds of metals deposited by
electrolysis, with the qualities of the same metals produced in another way.
In the treatment of the above inquiries, the Latin, French, English, German,
Swedish, or Danish languages may be used. The memoirs communicated must
be anonymous; but the name, style and domicile of the author of each will be
conveyed in a sealed note,*which will bear a mark or epigraph corresponding
with a similar one on the paper offered for competition. Communications will
be made to G. Forchhammer, corresponding secretary, before the end of Oeto-
ber, 1866.
PRIZE QUESTION IN PHYSICS, PROPOSED MAY 30, 1865, BY THE IMPERIAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF VIENNA.
Since the time when the existence of two opposite electrical states or condi-
tions was inferred by Grey from the attraction and repulsion of electrical
bodies, up to the present day, when we have learned, by means of magnetie
influence, to separate from one another the two opposite currents, the positive
and negative, and to present each distinct in itself, there has been recognized a
succession of other facts which authorize us to regard these conditions as dif-
ferent and opposed in other respects. ‘The occasion would, therefore. seem to
have arisen for a critical examination of the collective facts already discovered
and bearing upon this subject, and for their discussion in connexion with the
question: how far they lend support to one or other of the existing hypotheses
on the nature of the electric principle.
The mathematico-physical class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences has
therefore decided to propose a prize for a satisfactory solution of the following
question in the department of physics: ‘To collate and critically examine the
phenomena which, since the thirtieth year of the eighteenth century, have been
recognized as distinguishing positive and negative electricity from one another,
as well in their statical as active state, and to discuss those phenomena in con-
nexion with the question: in what relation they stand to one or other of the
hypotheses already advanced respecting the nature of the electrical principle.”
The discovery of hitherto unknown and important criteria of the two electri-
cal states, or the proposal and proof of a new hypothesis on the nature of eleo-
tricity, more closely corresponding with the phenomena than those already ad-
duced, though not made an express condition of success, will yet be regarded
with peculiar favor in the assignment of the prize. The time limited for com-
petition is the 31st of December, 1867; the adjudication of the prize of two
hundred Austrian ducats will take place at the stated meeting of the year 1868,
The memoir offered for competition must not contain the name of the author,
but be inscribed, as usual, with a motto which will be repeated on a sealed
note communicating his name and address. At the regular meeting, May 30,
the note pertaining to the successful treatise will be opened, and the name an-
nounced by the president. ‘There will be no division of a prize among several
competitors, nor will members of the academy be allowed to enter the lists.
The preferred memoir will remain the property of its author, but will be pub-
lished, if he desires it, by the academy; as will other memoirs adjudged worthy
of publication, should the authors signify their wishes to that effect.
PROGRAMME OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF THE NUOVI LINCEI.
The academy, with the view of conferring the annual prize founded by the °
testamentary liberality of one of its members in ordinary, the late Chevalier
Pierre Cart, proposes the discussion of the following theme: To discover a
method by means of which may be determined a// the rational values of « capable
of reducing to a perfect square or cube the polynome A+ Br+Cz?+ Daz?+ Ea*
PRIZE QUESTIONS. 453
P by whole values of A, B, C, D, E, provided that one or more of these values
of zx really exist, and if not, that the impossibility of their existence be shown.
Explanation.—A method employed by the celebrated Pierre de Fermat to
reduce to a square A+ Bz+Ca2?+Dz2'+z', or to a cube the expression,
A+Bze+Cz’+ De’, is given by P. Jacques de Billy in his work entitled Doc-
tring analytice inv entwm novum, (p.30 and 31 of the edition entitled Diophanti
Alexandrini libri sex, et de numeris multangulis liber unus, Se. Tolose,
MDCLXX.) This method is also explained by Leonard Euler in the eighth,
ninth, and tenth chapters of the second volume of his work entitled Hinlectung
der Algebra, translated into French under the title of Elemens d’ Algebre.
The XI volume of Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Pe-
tersburg (1830) contains several posthumous memoirs of Euler, relative to the
analysis of Diophantus, one of which is entitled Methodus nova et facilis formu-
las cubicas et biquadraticas ad quadratum reducendi. This method, well consid-
ered, is no other, says Jacobi, than that of the multiplication of elliptic integrals ;
a method already proposed by Euler himself in his Institutions of the integral
calculus and elsewhere, in order to pecially algebraically the transcendental equa-
tion z(y)—=xz(ax), or x(x) = J ——, f(x) =a+br+c2?+dz>+ ex*. This ob-
fia
servation of Jacobi is found in Ate XIII volume of the Journal de Mathe-
matiques of M. A. L. Crelle (1835) at the article, De usu theoria integralium
ellipticorum et integralium Abelianorum in analysi Diophanica. ‘The method
given by Fermat for reducing to asquare A+ Br+C2?+ Dz?+ Ez is also stated
in the volume entitled Theorie de nombres, 3d edition; by Adrien Marie Le-
gendre. Tome ii, Paris, 1830, (p. 123-125.) In a memoir of Lagrange, en-
titled Sur quelques problemes de Uanalyse de Diophante, and inserted in the
Nouveaux Memoires de I’ Academie royale des Sciences et belles-lettres, 1777 ; a
Berlin, 1779, a method also is given for resolving into rational numbers the general
equations of the third and fourth degree between two indeterminates 2, y.
Nevertheless, these methods are imperfect: Ist, because they already suppose
a known solution; 2d, because it is not demonstrated that they furnish all the
solutions possible. It is therefore desirable that another should be found in
which there should be no need of the knowledge of any solution, and it should
be made to appear whether the problem be or be not possible, and, if possible,
that all the solutions be given. This would be of great advantage in the theory
of numbers, or indeterminate analysis, and would open the way to important
progress, the question having as yet not been satisfied, except in very special
cases treated by learned geometers under the above-noticed conditions. It would
be conducive also to the progress of other parts of the mathematical sciences,
as may readily be seen from the relation, indicated by Jacobi in the memoir
already cited, between the problem propounded and the doctrine of elliptical
functions.
Conditions —Memoirs on the proposed theme should be rendered in Italian,
Latin, or French ; no other language is admissible. Each memoir will bear a
motto, which shall be repeated on a sealed envelope containing the name and
address of the author; and only that envelope will be opened corresponding to
the memoir which shall have obtained the prize. If the authors who receive
honorable mention desire that the academy should publish their names, it will
be necessary for them to signify their wishes within three months from the day
on which the prize is awarded; at the end of that term the envelopes will be
burned without having been unsealed. The academy has decided that, with the
exception of its own thirty members in ordinary, any one, whatever his nation-
ality, may compete for the prize. The memoirs and envelopes must be trans-
mitted free of postage before the 1st of October, 1866, when the competition will
close, and the prize will be awarded in January, 1867. 1t will consist of a gold
ay PRIZE QUESTIONS.
medal of the value of one hundred Roman scudi. The preferred memoir. will
be published entire or by extracts in the Acts of the Academy, and the author
will receive fifty copies.
N. CAVALIERI SAN BERTOLO,
President.
. P. VOLPICELLI, Secretary.
Rome, June 11, 1865.
ROYAL SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY INSTITUTE OF LOMBARDY.—SUB-
JECTS ANNOUNCED FOR COMPETITION IN THE ANNUAL MEETING OF
THE 7ruH AUGUST. 1865.
Class of letters and of moral and political sctences—Subject for the year
1866, proposed 7th August, 1864: “Of the principle of nationality in modern
European society.” ‘Time for presenting the memoirs, the whole of February,
1865.
Class of mathematical and natural scvences—Subject for the year 1867, pro-
posed 7th August, 1865: “'To give the genetic history of some species of in-
testinal worm pertaining to the family either of the Ascaride, or the Oxyuride,
or the Strongylidze, describing the entire cycle which it fulfils; prefaced by a
succinct account of the actual state of this branch of science.”
Recent investigations in Germany seem to favor the opinion that the nema-
toid worms undergo metamorphoses similar to those of the cestoids. It would
greatly promote our knowledge of this department of science to verify the reality
of these facts with new and conclusive experiments in addition to what has
already been performed; but this cannot be done except by following the de-
velopment of a considerable number of species belonging to the order of worms
above indicated. For this academical body, however, it will be sufficient if an
account be given of the mode of evolution of some species pertaining to one of
the three families of nematoids, of which the ascaris, the oxyuris, and the
strongylus are types. As these families comprise species by which man and
many domestic animals are infested, inquiries such as these might prove also of
advantage to medical practice. The memoir should be furnished with appro-
priate illustrations.
The time limited for competition is the whole month of February, 1867. The
prize for each of the above consists of 1,200 lire. The author will retain his
property in the memoir, but the institute reserves the right of publishing it in
its ‘Transactions.
Prizes of the Cagnola foundation —Subject for the year 1866, proposed 7th
August, 1864: “To show the evils and imperfections inherent in the military
conscription in the different provinces of Italy, and to indicate means and ar-
rangements adapted to their prevention.”
The time for presenting the memoirs is the whole of February, 1866. A
premium of 1,500 lire, and a medal of gold, of the value of 500 lire, will be
awarded.
Subject for 1867, announced 7th August, 1865—The opinion has obtained
among many cultivators of the silk-worm of the province of Milan, that the
rearing of the worms, conducted in such a way that in ordinary seasons the
process shall be completed before the end of May, will usually yield good re-
sults, and the worst results when completed in June. It is desirable to collect
scientific facts which shall serve to evince whether that opinion is confirmed by
the demonstration of a difference in the proportion of nitrogenous substances at
different stages of development of the leaves of the mulberry. Hence the fol-
lowing inquiry is submitted to competition: “To determine separately the
PRIZE QUESTIONS. 455
chemical composition, or, at least, the proportion of nitrogenous principles in
the leaves of three or four mulberry trees of the same species, cultivated in the
same soil, gathered in the first stage of their development, and also after the
leaves have reached an advanced state of maturity; and also the proportion of
the same principles existing at a given epoch in the leaves of different species
of the mulberry generally cultivated in upper Italy, not overlooking the wild
variety.” Competitors should furnish all the means possible for the verification
of their work.
The memoirs must be presented within the month of February, 1867. The
prize will consist of 1,000 lire, and a medal of gold of the value of 500 lire, sub-
ject to be adjudicated only in part. While the successful memoir will continue
to be the property of the author, he should publish it ew2hin a year, upon con-
sultation with the secretary of the institute as regards size and character of the
publication, and fifty copies shall be consigned to that officer, after which only
will the money be paid. The institute, as well as the requirements of the
founder, reserve the right of publishing, at their own expense, such larger num-
ber of copies as may seem desirable in the interests of science.
. Prizes of the Secco-Comneno foundation—Subject for the year 1866, an-
nounced August 7, 1863. The importance of utilizing the greatest possible
quantity of heat which can be developed by our combustibles, renders it de-
sirable that investigation should be directed to this object, to the benefit of our
national industry. We therefore propose a “manual which shall exhibit, in an
elementary form, the phenomena and laws constituting the doctrine of the trans-
formation of heat into mechanical labor, and vice versa, with application to
thermo-dynamic machinery.’ ‘Time for presenting the memoir, month of Feb-
ruary, 1866.
Subject for the year 1867, announced in 1862 and again proposed in 1865:
« Among the various forms of active credit, to determine which would be most
beneficial and suitable to the actual state of the kingdom of Italy, and which
would satisfy at once the three-fold object of disburdening the hypothecated
debt, promoting the great meliorations of agriculture, and furnishing relief to
the class of simple tenants and cultivators of land.” For the solution of this
question, the abstract and known theories of authors will not be sufficient; but
what is required is, their immediate and practical application to the necessities
and interests of the country, with proofs and illustrations, both statistical and
economical, to be accompanied by the project of a law for a new funded credit
for Italy, in the shape of an appendix or resumé of the whole treatise. The
time for the presentation of memoirs is limited to the 31st December, 1866; and
the prize for either of the above topics is 864 lire. Publication is to be made
’ within a year after the award, when eight copies are to be consigned to the ad-
ministration of the great hospital of Milan, and one to the institute for collation
with the manuscript.
Special Castiglioni prize—For the prize of 500 lire, offered by the Cavalier
Cesar Castiglioni, director of the insane asylum of Senavyra, the following sub-
ject is proposed: “A memoir upon meteorological studies and observations, con-
ducted with reference to some circumscribed territory in the kingdom of Italy,
and preferably in Lombardy; provided the conclusions arrived at be judged to
be of real importance and practical utility.” The month of April, 1867, is the
term of the competition for this prize.
General regulations regarding competition—FYoreigners and natives, with
the exception of active members of the institute, may compete for the prizes by
memoirs in Italian, Latin, or French. These should be transmitted, free of
postage, at the time assigned for each, to the secretary of the institute, at the
palace of Brera, in Milan. They must be strictly anonymous, and bear only a
motto, which is to be repeated on a sealed note, containing the name and domicile
of the author. All the manuscripts will be preserved in the archives of the in-
456 PRIZE QUESTIONS.
stitute, but the authors of memoirs which obtain no prize will be at liberty to
withdraw them within a year from the date of the award, which will take place
in the stated meeting of the 7th of August following the close of the period of
competition.
A. VERGA, President.
G. CURIONI, Secretary.
MILAN, August 7, 1865.
PROGRAMME OF THE IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE,
AND ARTS OF LILLE, 1866.
ANNUAL prizES.—The society will award medals of gold, silver gilt, silver,
and bronze, to the authors of meritorious memoirs addressed to it upon the sub-
‘jects here designated. 'The accepted memoirs may be published by the society,
and will form a separate collection, the publication of which will date from the
present time.
I. PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866.—1. A comparative critical
examination of the numerous processes proposed for preventing incrustations
in steam boilers. Indication of the most efficacious and economical process
for each description of water of supply. 2. A study of the different kinds
of coal of the north of France, under the two-fold relation of chemical com-
position and calorific properties. 3. A comparative study of the photometers
hitherto proposed, and an indication of the instrument of this kind which may be
regarded as most simple and most exact. 4. An elementary exposition adapted
to employment in instruction of the mechanical theory of heat and its applica-
tions in machinery. 5. The meat furnished by the shambles is distributed, as
is well known, under several categories or qualities, whose price by the kilegram
is very different; but no comparative chemical analysis has been made of the
different qualities of meat from the same animal. It is desirable to know what
are the differences which these qualities ‘present under the relation of immediate
composition : Whether, under the alimentary relation, these qualities really offer
marked differences in conformity with their market value? Why the inferior
pieces, the quantities of flesh being equal, should afford less nutriment than the
more choice pieces? Finally, is it possible for chemistry to give precise answers
to these questions so interesting to public hygiene? 6. A comparative direct
analysis of the principal kinds of cheeses in the state in which they serve for
consumption, and a deduction, from the analytical results obtained, of the real
value of cheeses in the comparative scale of aliments.
Question proposed for the competition of 1868.—Among the aliments or con-
diments borrowed from the vegetable kingdom there are a great number whose
immediate composition is not known in an exact manner, and of which, conse-
quently, it is difficult to appreciate the true alimentary value. Of this number
are the small and the long red radishes (raphanus sativus ;) the black or gray
radish (raphanus niger ;) the horse-radish (cochlearia armoracia;) the eseu-
lent gallingale (cyperus esculentus ;) the edible arum (caladium esculentum ;)
the ground chestnut (duniwm bulbocastanum ;) the tuberous vetch (lathyrus
tuberosus ;) the root of rampion (campanula rapunculus ;) the bulbs of garlic
(allium satiwum,) of shallot (allium ascalonicum,) of onion (allium cepa ;)
bulbs and leaves of the leek (allium ponum,) of the orchis (orchis morio, mas-
cula, §c.;) leaves of lettuce (lactuca sativa,) of secrzonera (scorzonera his-
panica,) of wild chicory (crcorium intybus,) of endive (cicorium endivia,) of
dandelion (taraxacum dens-leonis,) of water-cress (nasturtium officinale,) of
common garden cress (lepidium sativum,) of scallion (aliium fistulosum et
PRIZE QUESTIONS. 457
schenoprasum,) of different cabbages (brassica oleracea,) of parsley (petrose-
Linum sativum,) of chervil (anthriscus cerefolium,) of pimpernel (poterium san-
guisorba,) of tarragon (artemisia dracunculus,) of sorrel (rumex acetosa,) of
spinach (spinacia oleracea,) of herbaceous glasswort (salicornia herbacea,) of
the white beet (deta cicla,) of purslane (portulaca oleracea,) of corn salad
(valeriana olitoria,) of rampion (campanula rapunculus ;) the stalks of celery
(apium graveolens, sweet variety, ) of turnip celery, (a variety of the preceding, )
of angelica (angelica archangelica,) of rhubarb (rheum ribes,) of cardoons
(cynare cardunculus ;) the flower tops of sarietta (satureia hortensis ;) the re-
ceptacles or bottoms of artichokes (cynara scolymus ;) the young shoots of
asparagus (asparagus officinalis,) of the hop (humuius lupulus ;) the green pods
of peas (pisum sativum, ) of beans (phascolus vulgarus ;) cucumbers (cucumis
sativus,) gherkins (a variety of the preceding ;) the fruit of the egg-plant (solo-
num melongenda,) of the tomato (lycopersicum esculentum; ) the fig (/icus carica ; )
the date (phanix dactylifera;) the carob (ceratonia siliqua ;) common and
French chestnut (castanea vesca;) the sweet acorn (quercus ballota ;) water
chesnut, or caltrop, (trata natans.)
It would be interesting to determine, in these different edible substances, the
relative proportions of water, of organic matters, nitrogenous or otherwise, of
succulent matter, of salts, (particularly phosphates and alkalies,) of the total
nitrogen.
II. MEDICAL SCIENCES AND PHYSIOLOGY.
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866.—1. To determine, according
to the present state of science, the chemical and mechanical influences which
gases absorbed by the intestinal and pulmonary mucous surfaces exert on the
circulatory curreat. ‘To inquire what affections and effects are produced on the
animal economy by the passage of the principal gaseous substances in the san-
guineous system. :
The Society of Sciences, while leaving full liberty to competitors in arriving
at the solution of this important question, desires that the works of Nysten,
of Vidal, of MM. Andral and Gavarret, &c., should be consulted, and that
efforts should be made to ascend to-the etiology of certain affections, the
origin and nature of which are still unknown. 2. To inquire into the disturb-
ance introduced into the functions of nutrition and relation by the use of to-
bacco; to determine, by recourse to numerous observations, what mode of
smoking is most injurious to health. 3. The physiological and therapeutic
action of quinine is known: to study and show by experiments the physiologi-
eal effects of the other principles contained in the quinquinas. 4. ‘lo perform
the same study as regards tobacco.
Question proposed for the competition of 1867.—The mode in which eels are
reproduced is entirely unknown to naturalists; it is not known what organs are
productive of the elements which serve for generation, and we are ignorant
whether eels produce eggs or young eels. Several kinds or varieties of eels
are known, and some naturalists have thought that these different forms might
be only sexual. It is proposed that these problems, important as regards
physiology and pisciculture, should be examined and resolved. 2. To study
the cadaveric phenomena which precede the period of putrefaction, to the effect
of determining by positive researches at what epoch rigidity appears and ceases
both in the adult and new-born infant. To draw from this study applications
for the use of legal medicine.
III. SCIENCES APPLIED TO INDUSTRY.
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866.—1. To indicate an indus-
trial means for the direct preparation of oxalic acid in aid of the mangel-wurzel
in nature. 2. To compose a technological history of flax, and show the im-
458 PRIZE QUESTIONS.
portance of its culture and employment in the north of France and in Belgfam.
3. 'To prepare a practical guzde for the construction and employment of steam
generators, recapitulating, as briefly as possible and in simple and unscientific
language, the rules and numerical data furnished by the most certain: and re-
cent researches and experiments with reference to the construction of boilers,
furnaces, chimneys, and in regard to the management of the fire. 4. To indi-
cate a simple process, industrially practical and economic, for rendering
saponifiable the oily matter extracted from the washings of wool. ‘To con-
sider the subject also in its commercial application.
IV. AGRICULTURE. ’
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866.—1. To make a comparative
analysis of all or part of the kinds of calcareous substances which are made
use of in the north of France, whether for the liming or marling of land. To
indicate the repositories and physical characters, of these substances. 2. To
show the different modes of liming and marling practiced in the north of France,
specifying for each several soil the quantities of lime or marl adopted in dif-
ferent localities, as well as the duration of the liming or marling ; also, the net
cost of these two operations in each locality. 3. To give the statistics, with
proofs and illustrations, of the agricultural state of the arrondissement of Lille,
from 1850 to 1864.
V. SOCIAL AND STATISTICAL ECONOMY.
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866.—1. A view of the societies
for mutual succor among workingmen (called Societies of the Sick) which ex-
isted at Lille previous to 1789, their organization, and results. 2. To de-
termine, by means of administrative acts, public documents or incontestable
private records, the variations which the price of a day’s work has undergone
within a century at Lille and in the arrondissement ; comparing therewith the
price of the hectolitre of wheat as well as other objects of prime necessity
during the same period, drawn from similar sources of information. 3. An
historical account of one of the chief industries of the department of the north,
(manufacture of sugar, of potash of the beet, of soap, distilling, rotting of flax,
spinning and weaving, &c.,) stating the different phases of its development,
and indicating its probable career in the future. The present state of the in-
dustry selected for consideration should be established by statistics, whose ele-
ments, derived from official sources, shall be susceptible of verification.
VI. LEGISLATION.
Questions proposed for the competition of 1866—1. On the legislation of
prebends before and since the revolutionary period; the advantages and incon-
veniences of these sorts of foundations. 2. Researches respecting the legisla-
tion for annoying or unhealthful establishments in the city of Lille previous to
the decree of 1810.
VII. HISTORY.
Questions for the competition of 1866.—1. To indicate the physical topog-
raphy of maritime Flanders from the Roman conquest, embracing a discussion,
under a critically scientific point of view and based upon geological, geographi-
eal, and archeological documents, of the different opinions heretofore main-
tained upon this subject; also, an inquiry whether there exist in the depart-
ment remains of human industry which may be referred to the age of stone.
2. History of some rural commune of the department of the north. 3. History
of the judicial organization of the different provinces which now constitute the
department of the north from the invasion of the barbarians to 1789. 4. No-
PRIZE QUESTIONS. 459
tice on the life and writings of Jacques Meyer, author of the Annals of Flan-
ders. 5. History of the charitable and hospital establishments of the arron-
dissement of Lille situated outside of the ancient city. 6. Biographical study
on the botanist, Desmaziéres. 7. Biographical study on the naturalist, Macquart.
VII. LITERATURE AND POETRY.
Each year there will be opened a competition in poetry, and medals will be
awarded to the authors of the best pieces of verse; the subject will be left to
the choice of competitors. The first gold medal for the most distinguished
production in the two lines of literature and poetry will be replaced by an ob-
ject of art. Questions for competition in 1866.—1. History of literature in
the provinces which now form the department of the north from its incorpora-
tion by France (1667) to our own time. 2. A dramatic scene comprising per-
sonages and choruses proper to be set to music. 3. Kulogium upon one of the
benefactors of the poor at Lille (the Countess Jeanne, Gantois, Masurel,
Stappart, &c.)
IX. FINE ARTS.
Questions for competition in 1866.—1. The project of a monument to be
erected on one of the new public spaces of Lille, and which might serve on occa-
sion for expositions of art or industry, for public solemnities, such, for instance,
as the distribution of prizes, for concerts, or even for balls. 2. A design for a
statue to be erected to one of the benefactors of the poor at Lille, (Countess
Jeanne, Gantois, Masurel, Stappart, &c.) The model should be of plaster, and
one-fourth of the intended size. 3. History of the arts of design at Lille from
the foundation of the city to the nineteenth century, inclusive. By arts of design
are to be understood painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture, as well as the
industrial arts in their relations to the former. 4. A study of the life and works
of Arnould de Vuer. 5. A study, principally with a view to exterior deco-
ration, of the architectural conditions of edifices built of ordinary bricks or of
bricks and stones. An examination of the special difficulties which attend
ornamentation when ordinary bricks are exclusively employed, together with
an indication of the most suitable arrangements. 6. A medal will be awarded
to the author of a remarkable musical composition, such as a symphony, over-
ture, chorus, with or without accompaniment. For a composition for singing
Without accompaniment or with the accompaniment of the piano, the medal
may, at the choice of the candidate, be replaced by publication at the cost of
the society. 7. Photography: The indication of a mode of preparation fur-
nishing a collodion, comprising in itself the photogenic elements, so as to dis-
pense with the operations which are necessary to give sensibility to the com-
mon collodion. ‘The collodion must be sufficiently sensitive for obtaining por-
traits or animated landscapes.
X. VARIOUS ENCOURAGEMENTS,
The society reserves to itself the compensation and encouragement, by pre-
miums and medals, of the authors of productions or labors, whether scientific,
literary, artistic, agricultural, or industrial, not mentioned in the present pro-
gramme. It may even recompense the importation into the arrondissement of
Lille of a new industry or of new industrial processes, and, in general, every
kind of work capable of exerting a happy influence on the situation of the
country.
XI. RECOMPENSES TO INDUSTRIAL AGENTS.
«
Since 1831 the society recompenses, by checks on the Savings Bank, pre-
miums and medals, the fidelity and attachment of servants to their masters ; it
460 PRIZE QUESTIONS.
will each year award similar distinctions to the old servants of industry. The
certificates delivered in favor of industrial agents must be recognized and
certified as true by the patrons.
General conditions of competition—Each year the memoirs and ‘other labors
will be addressed, free of charge, to the secretary general of the society at the
Fétel de Ville, before the 15th of October. Every remittance will bear an
epigraph, reproduced in form of address upon a sealed note, which contains the
name and denotes the domicile of the author, together with an attestation signed
by him, certifying that which sent has not been made public nor presented be-
fore for competition. This note will not be opened unless the candidate shall
have merited a recompense. Every manuscript, design, plan, or mudel offered
in competition remains the property of the society, which may authorize the
author to take a copy at his own expense; the preceding disposition, however,
is not applicable to objects of art. ‘The certificates given in favor of workmen
and industrial agents who prefer a claim to the medals and premiums offered
for good and long service must be addressed before the 15th of October to the
secretary general. .
COMPTE DE MELUN,
President.
P. GUIRAUDET,
Secretary General.
WICAR PRIZE, INSTITUTED BY THE IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES,
AGRICULTURE, AND ARTS OF LILLE.
An annual prize is founded by a decree of the society, which shall bear
the name of the Wicar prize, and, in the present state of the resources, shall
consist of 1,000 francs. ‘This prize will be annually awarded, in succession,
to different branches of study, which, with that view, will be divided into
three sections: Section of literature and of the fine arts, comprising literature,
poetry, architecture, painting, sculpture, &c.; section of sciences, physics, chem-
‘istry, mechanics, industrial sciences, &c.; section of historical, moral, and eco-
nomical sciences. In the event that a prize assigned to one section be not awarded
the first year, competition will remain open for following years, until the prize
shall be awarded or triennial rotation restore it to the same section. As in the
latter case the society must open anew a competition in the same section, the
sum appropriated to the new prize will be added to that of the prize which has
remained unemployed, when there may be two prizes proposed or a single one
of double value.
Competition for 1866.—Seetion of sciences —Geology: to show the distribu-
tion of fossil vegetables in the coal basin of the north of I’rance, and to indicate
the conclusions which may be drawn from this distribution in regard to the geo- ,
logical constitution of the basin and its mode of formation. It should be ascer-
tained whether special floras, analogous to those which M. Geinitz has recog-
nized in Saxony, can be distinguished in the different beds of our coal basin.
Such a discovery would be of much importance, since it would suffice to collect
a certain number of vegetables in a bed of coal in order immediately to know
the place which this bed occupies in the coal formation. It would enable us
also to ascertain whether our coal basin is complete, or is only a remnant, of
which the portions elevated by a cataclysm are to be sought elsewhere. It
should be inquired, at the same time, whether the nature of the vegetables con-
stituting these different floras be such that we can recognize them as having lived
under different conditions, and av attempt should be made* to determine these
conditions, as has been done by M. Ludwig for the tertiary combustibles of the
: PRIZE QUESTIONS. ‘ AG61
banks of the Rhine. It would be well also to consider the influence of the dif-
ferent floras on the composition of the coal,
Competition for 1867.—Section of historical, moral, and economical sciences —
History.—The prize will be awarded to the best monograph of an establishment,
whether civil or ecclesiastical, such as an abbey, chapter, or city of the depart-
ment of the north. ‘The proposed work should have as its basis authentic un-
published documents, literally reported in the form of a cartulary or body of
proofs. It should be followed by an index containing the names of places and
persons.
Section of literature and the fine arts.—Painting.—On account of the ex-
hibition of painting which is to take place exceptionally at Lille during the
present year, the society has decided that the competition for 1868 pertaining
to the section last named shall be a competition in painting, and be assigned by
anticipation to 1866. Consequently the prize which would have been awarded
in 1868 will be conferred at the close of the exhibition of the present year on
the author of the painting which shall be judged most worthy by a jury taken
from the society or designated by it,
Architecture—Designs for habitations.*—Of these, three kinds are pro-
pee 1. A hotel of the first class. 2. A private habitation or domicile for a
amily. 3. A house for rent by apartments. Conformity with the following con-
ditions is required; 1. Models or well-executed outlines (plans and elevations)
of the three designated kinds of buildings. ‘The principal fagade of the hotel
should be rendered with the greatest care; a particular study of any important
detail should be added. 2. Sketches, plans, and elevations, expressing in a
clear and exact manner a system of arrangement of the three types of habita-
tions contemplated. It will be allowable, therefore, to unite or to separate
them in such arrangement as may be chosen, to divide the plats comprised be-
tween the public ways by new walks or free spaces, &ce.
Hotel of the first class—The approximate expense, (not including painting,
glazing, and furnishing,) 300,000 francs; ground-plat, 2,500 square metres ;
front on the street, 40.metres. It has not been thought expedient to give a
designation of the apartments; it is not proposed to insist on any disposition,
form, or dimension, except the length of front on the street, with a limitation
of depth. Even the cost is not fixed in a rigorous manner, although it is indi-
cated in order to engage competitors to take into account the merit of relative
economy. ‘The liberty allowed should not be deemed, however, an abandon-
ment of the fundamental principles of architectural art. The society, on the
contrary, recommends the strictest practical observance of it; but it will also
regard with favor new ideas and forms, in so far as they shall correspond to the
well-considered requirements of a habitation, at once rich, comfortable, and of
superior taste. :
Private dwelling —By this title must be ynderstood a house suitable for a
numerous family, the head of which might be engaged in a liberal profession,
and have extensive relations both in business and society. The length of the
front on the street may be from 10 to 13 metres, the depth not being preseribed ;
the expense may be fixed approximately at 300 frances per square metre of the
surface covered, (ground-floor and two stories.) As in the preceding case, an
indication of the general intention only is submitted, leaving to each competitor
the entire merit of originality in his ideas. ‘he modern dwelling should com-
prise, without great expenditure, much tastefulness and a comfort but too little
sought after by architects. Art should ally itself with science to give the
stamp of distinction to our homes, without forgetting, however, that a modest
* The prize which was offered for 1465 having not then been awarded, will be conferred
in 1866, if deserved; ifmot, competition for it will be continued till 1867, but not later.
462 PRIZE QUESTION
reserve in ornamentation should be considered a necessary economy, and at the
same time a proof of taste.
louse for renting by apartments with shops on the ground-floor —Vhis spe-
cies of habitation, so generally adopted at Paris, is still but little in use at Lille,
where the inhabitants prefer houses reserved for a single family; this is a defect,
however ; strangers do not find means of lodging conveniently ; the system of
groups of rooms in one house would satisfy a real necessity. Here, it will be
seen, the question of expense is predominant, and it is necessary to renounce
the advantages of the habitation entirely private, with a view to the admission
of partial communism. The highest rate of renting should not exceed 2,500
francs.
The society would especially cal] the attention of competitors to the diffteult
problem of the establishment of lodgings at a reduced price for the working
class. Thinking it useful, in the interest of society, not too far to separate
from one another the different classes of the population, that object will be
understood to form an essential part of the present programme. The difficulty,
therefore, of lodging different classes of society under the same roof must not
be evaded, but in proposing a special solution for lodges of workmen arranging
themselves in the general plan required. In this lodge the rent should not ex-
ceed a mean of seventy-five francs by the apartment and year. The conditions
of hygiene, of cleanliness, of morality, and, as far as possible, of commodious-
ness, must be met by means of an expenditure proportioned to the revenue.
Whatever combination be adopted, the price of the ground, even in the centre
of a square, cannot be expected to fall below fifteen francs per square metre.
The length of the street front is fixed at twenty-four metres, the depth of
the ground space being undetermined—that is to say, it is left to the discretion
of the architect whether one or several blocks of buildings be proposed. The
number and extent of the apartments is not fixed, depending, as they must do,
upon conditions which cannot be prescribed with exactness, without being
prejudicial to the conception of the types which the society wishes to obtain.
It may be added that the conveniences sought to be realized in the present case
must involve no neglect of the prescriptions of hygiene. 'The provisions rela
tive to sewerage are the same at Lille as at Paris.
General conditions for the competition tn architecture —To encourage the ex-
tensive and complex science which is applied to the art of building habitations
corresponding to all the present wants of society, and at the same time to elevate
the public taste by the view of better types of modern civil and domestic archi-
‘tecture, such is the special object contemplated in the proposed competition ;
competitors are therefore apprised that the society will accord the same value to
the qualities of economy, convenience, and health as to the artistic merit of the
architectural form. It will not consider its intentions well fulfilled except by
the simultaneous application of science and of art. To competitors the initiative
of ideas is left both as to substance and form, as well as the mode of their reali-
zation; yet, without excluding the employment of materials transported at much
expense, it would seem judicious to prefer materials drawn from the country or
of no remote origin : for the walls, bricks, red or glazed; for the basement, the
sandstone of Soignies, Belgium; for the roof, slate, violet or green. The designs
for the whole should be given on a scale of 0.0025; plans and sections on one
of 0.025; facades 0.05; a detail of the facade should be represented of the size
to be executed. Independently of the required indications, competitors will be
at liberty to send all drawings and notes explanatory or descriptive which they
deem necessary.
The Society of Sciences will appoint a jury of adjudication, of which a ma-
jority shall be architects, and the greatest publicity will be given to the result
of the competition. An exhibition will precede the reading, in public session,
of the report, and after the judgment thus rendered a second exhibition will
PRIZE QUESTIONS. 463
complete the guarantee of impartiality offered to the competitors; the names of
the latter may, at their own request, be aflixed to their respective plans during
this second exhibition, which will continue but for twenty days, during which
no piece can be withdrawn.
The general conditions for the Wicar prize [are substantially the same with
those previously given.]| Each memoir transmitted remains the property of the
society, with liberty to the authors to have copies made at their own expense,
but this does not apply to paintings, designs, plans, and models intended for
competition in the fine arts; in that for architecture the work to which the prize
has been adjudged will be the property of the society, and may be published by
the latter. Jor all further information recourse should be had to the secretary-
general of the society, P. Guiraudet.
DUNKIRK SOCIETY (SOCIETE DUNKERQUOISE) FOR THE ENCOURAGE-
MENT OF SCIENCES, LETTERS, AND ARTS.—PROGRAMME OF SUBJECTS
FOR COMPETITION—1866.
In the regular meeting of 1866 the society will award, if occasion be afforded,
a gold medal for the best memoir on each of the following subjects :
SCIENCES.
T. Study upon naval constructions.—To treat of the history of naval construo-
tions, and of the progress successively made therein at Dunkirk ; to examine
particularly the influence of the modes of building on the sailing of vessels pro-
pelled by wind.
Il. Study on the fauna of maritime Flanders.—The author may, at his choice,
treat of the ornithological fauna, or of the entomological fauna, or of the concho-
logical description; the parts not treated of will remain for competition in fol-
lowing years.
LETTERS.
Ill. A history of Dunkirk for the use of the young —A sum of one hundred
frances has, in this case, been added as a donation to the medal of the society by
an anonymous contributor. The object proposed is not a long and elaborate
work, but a series of detached lectures, wherein the most important facts of the
history of Dunkirk may be appropriately placed in relief. In the opinion of
the society, such a work should not, at its greatest extent, exceed 250 pages
12mo.
IV. An unpublished memoir on a subject relative to the history or archszo-
logy of maritime Flanders.
ARTS.
V. Architecture—Design of a monument commemorative of the battle of
Dunes, (1658,) to be erected on the site of that battle.
COMPETITION FOR 1867.
Sciences.—A succinct history of cotton manufactures in the north of France,
from the origin of that branch of industry to the present day, under the twofold °
relation of the labor in cotton and its hygiene; with an appreciation of the pro-
gress achieved and an indication of the ameliorations desirable, especially in a
hygienic point of view. The sojourn in the workshops, through the absorption
of the dust, having been found to generate certain affections of the respiratory
organs, the proposed treatise should be adapted to serve as a sort of manual for
the‘use of manufacturers and workmen.
464. PRIZE QUESTIONS.
The society proposes to offer successively for competition analogous investi-
gations respecting hemp, wool, and other substances employed in industry; to
be followed by memoirs on weaving and its incidents, on the manufactures
which interest at once the industry and agriculture of our country, such as
sugar, oils, alcohols, beer, &c. Persons who may have prepared works on
these topics are requested to address them to the society, which, in case of
merit, will award recompenses.
The answers will be directed free to the perpetual secretary of the Dunkirk
Society before the 1st of July of the year of competition. They must not be
signed, but will bear an epigraph or motto, repeated in a sealed note communica-
ting the name, profession and residence of the author, who will certify that hes
memoir is unpublished and has never been offered in competition. This note
will not be opened unless the work should merit a prize or honorable mention ;
otherwise it will be burned. Authors who make themselves known in advance,
by whatever means, will be excluded from competing. The works sent be-
come the property of the society, though authors may have a copy taken at
their own expense. The candidate who, having been successful at one of the
five preceding awards, shall obtain the first rank, will be entitled only to a
commemorative notice of the medal. In this case honorable mention, inscribed
on a silver medal, may be accorded to the memoir rated as second in point of
merit. The author who, for one of the subjects proposed for competition, may
obtain several recompenses, will be entitled only to the higher medal.
The society reserves the right of awarding medals to persons who shall have
sent presents or memoirs which, although not invited by the programme, shall
appear to merit distinction. or all further information reference may be had to
the perpetual secretary of the society.
TERQUEM, President.
VOR. DERODE, Perpetual Secretary. -
Dunkirk, November 10, 1865.
QS ——————
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, —
WITH TABLES INTENDED ESPECIALLY FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS AND
AUTHORS OF ARITHMETICS.
PREPARED BY PROF. H. A. NEWTON, OF YALE COLLEGE.
While this part of the appendix to the Annual Report of the Smith-
sonian Institution was passing through the press the following resolu-
tions, pertaining to the French system of weights and measures,
were adopted by both houses :
AN ACT to authorize the use of the metric system of weights and measures.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of
this act, it shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ
the weights and measures of the metric system; and no contract, or dealing, or
pleading in any court, shall be deemed invalid, or liable to objection, because
the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures
of the metric system.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the tables in the schedule hereto an-
nexed shall be recognized, in the construction of contracts, and in all legal pro-
ceedings, as establishing, in terms of the weights and measures now in use in
the United States, the equivalents of the weights and measures expressed there-
in in terms of the metric system; and said tables may be lawfully used for com-
puting, determining, and expressing in customary weights and measures the
weights and measures of the metric system.
AN ACT to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish to each State one set of the
standard weights and measures of the metric system.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and
he is hereby, authorized and directed to furnish to each State, to be delivered to
the governor thereof, one set of the standard weights and measures of the metric
system, for the.use of the States respectively.
AN ACT to authorize the use in post offices of weights of the denomination of grams.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, That the Postmaster General be, and he is
30 s
466 ~ THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
hereby, authorized and directed to furnish to the post offices exchanging mails
with foreign countries, and to such other offices as he shall think expedient,
‘postal balances denominated in grams, of the metric system, and until otherwise
provided by law, one-half ounce avoirdupois shall be deemed and taken for pos-
tal purposes as the equivalent of fifteen grams of the metric weights, and so
adopted in progression; and the rates of postage shall be applied accordingly.
‘The metric system is so called from the metre, which is its principal and only
arbitrary unit. It is in use, to the exclusion of other weights and measures, in
several countries of Europe, and is in partial use in almost all the uations of
christendom.
UNITS OF THE SYSTEM.
The metre is a measure of length. It is intended to be, and is very nearly,
one ten-millionth part of the distance from the equator to the pole, measured on
the earth’s surface.. It is 39.37 inches, very nearly. Five metres are a little
less than a rod.
The are is a measure of surface, and is equal to a square whose side is 10
metres. It contains 100 square metres, or a little less than four square rods.
The litre is the unit of dry measure, and also of liquid measure. It is equal
to the volume of a cube whose edge is one tenth of a metre. <A cubic metre,
therefore, contains 1,000 litres. The litre is a little more than a wine quart,
being equal to about 1,5 quart.
The gram is the unit of weight, and is the weight of a cube of water, each
edge of the cube being ;35 of a metre. A litre of water weighs, therefore, 1,000
grams, and a cubic metre of water weighs 1,000,000 grams. <A gram is 15.432
+ grains.
The stere is a cubic metre, and is about 1.308 cubic yards.
Each of these units is divided decimally, and also larger units are formed from
multiples by 10, 100, 1,000, &e. The successive multiples are designated by
the prefixes deka, hecto, kiloand myria; the successive parts by deci, centi, and
mille.
The following schedules of equivalents of the several units of the system rep-
resent their values in denominations inuse. The numbers are not carried to the
highest degree of accuracy, but the amount of the error in them is generally
(except in some of the smaller denominations) less than the change due to a
difference of two or three degrees of temperature of the standard metre bar.
Measures of length.
METRIC DENOMINATIONS AND VALUES, EQUIVALENTS IN DENOMINATIONS IN USE.
Myriametre ....- -.-- 10,000 metres | 6.2157 miles.
Kilometre: .-2- -+22-- 1,000 metres | 0.62137 mile, or 3,280 feet and 10 inches.
Hectometre -.... ---- 100 metres | 328 feet and one inch.
Decametre ..---- ---- 10 metres | 393.7 inches.
Motren: swiyecon bios 1 metre | 39.37 inches.
Decimetres-- 25.522 zoth ofa metre | 3.937 inches.
Centimetre’.. 3 o5-= yipth of a metre | 0.3937 inch.
Millimetre. s2-25253¢. | tisoth of a metre | 0.0394 inch.
ee
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 467
Measures of surface.
METRIC DENOMINATIONS AND VALUES, EQUIVALENTS IN DENOMINATIONS IN USE.
Ikea hie ead te eeeeaser ee 10, 000 square metres | 2.471 acres.
N= eepeeeiac= po= ane 100 square metres | 119.6 square yards.
WE UIATO bem = <= 2. s== 1 square metre | 1,550 square inches.
Measures of capacity.
METRIC DENOMINATIONS AND VALUES. EQUIVALENTS IN DENOMINATIONS IN USE.
Names. No. of, Cubic measure. Dry measure. Liquid ,or wine
litres. | measure.
|
Kilolitre or stere) 1000 | 1 cubic metre....--.-.- 1.308 eubie yard --.| 264.17 gallons.
Hectolitre...-. 100°) +45 of a cubic metre....| 2 bus. and 3.35 pecks-| 26.417 gallons.
Decalitre. -...| 10 | 10 cubic decimetres -..| 9.08 quarts -..-. -+-. 2.6437 gallons.
Mires ss s552 5. 1 | 1 cubic decimetre - ---- 0.908 quart .-.= ..-- 1.0567 quart.
Mechire.$ 2! io | wo of a cubic decimetre| 6.1022 cubic inches,--.| 0.845 gill.
Centilitre. --.-| +45 | 10 cubic centimetres. ..| 0.6102 cubic inch -.-| 0.338 fluid ounce.
Millilitre ...... zolcw | 1 cubic centimetre....| 0.061 cubic inch -..-| 0.27 fluid drachm.
Weights.
*
EQUIVALENTS IN DENOMI-
’ Ng rT Tr 7 Tk
METRIC DENOMINATIONS AND VALUES, NATIONS IN USE.
Raaien: Number of Weight of what quantity of Avoirdupois weight.
grams. water at maximum density.
Millier or tonnean-.| 1000000 | 1 cubic metre...-....-----..- 2204.6 pounds.
Quintal)------ 4 65 - TOOOGOS ME hectolitre- =... =-n eee 220.46 pounds.
Miyniaoram) 2-- 228 LOMO ONitness a2- eee eee 22.046 pounds.
yy = 5 A 5 : AVE I
Kilogram, or kilo -- TOOO! Dlitre. si. ML Slee ae a-| 2.2046 pounds.
to} u “7° 9 -Or I
Hectosranil. 2.25 - 1OOm Pe deciiine sere asses 3.0274 ounces
Decagram.....<..- 10 | 10 cubic centimetres... .-----| 0.3527 ounce.
Grae se eo i) Icubic centimetre s-5-ss-e-e 15.432 grains.
Deciaramas— +. oe + | 7 of a cubic centimetre ...--.|.0.5432 grain.
8 To | 1 ecene: eral
Wentieram. 223. =: sia | 10 cubic millimetres.-.---.---- 0.1543 grain.
Milter) = 5) Sess joo | J cubic miilimetre........---- 0.0154 grain.
3 To00 $
For convenience in converting metric weights and measures into denomina-
tions in use, and vice versa, the following tables have been prepared. Tor the
sake of uniformity in them, the metre is regarded as 39.37 inches, and the kilo-
gram as 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds. The contents of the bushel and gallon are
regarded, severally, as 2,150.42 and 231 cubic inches. The tables are computed
from these several numbers and from the commonly recognized relations of
weights and measures.
The use of the tables may be seen by a few examples:
Example 1—to find the number of miles in 74 kilometres: In Table I, in
the line for.70 and in the column under 4 we find 45.981, which is the number
of miles required.
468 THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
Example 2—to find the number of miles in 63,000 kilometres: In the same
table, in the line for 60 and in the column under 3 is found 39.146. Removing
the decimal point three places to the right for the three ciphers in 63,000, we
‘have the answer—39,146 miles.
Example 3—to find the number of miles in 63,740 kilometres :
For 63,000 kilometres we have............2---- ..- 39,146 miles.
For —. 740 kilometres'we tiave. - Voce. osc. 4. coe 459.81 *
Hence; for} 63,740 kilometres we haves <3). 2. ct cer <o -'2- op ore 39,605.81) **
which is the number of miles required.
Example 4—to find the number of miles in 2,746 meters—that is, in 2.746
kilometres: In 27 kilometres by the table are 16.777 miles, and in 46 kilometres
by the table are 28.583 miles. Hence, in 2.7 kilometres are 1.6777 _ miles,
and in .046 kilometres are .028583 “
. and therefore, in 2.746 kilometres are 1.706283 <“
Or about 1.7063 miles, which is the number required.
469
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
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479
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
e TasLe I.—For converting kilometres into miles.
Kilometres. 0. i. 2. Be A. D. G6. 7. 8. 9.
}
Oo 0 . 621 1.243 1. 864 2.485 | 3.107} 3.728] 4.350] 4.971 5. 592
410 6. 214 6. 835 7. 456 8. 078 8.699 | 9.321} 9.942 | 10.563 | 11.185 | 11.806
20 12. 427 13. 049 13. 670 14.292 | 14.913 | 15.534 | 16.156 | 16.777 | 17.398 | 18.020
30 18. 641 19. 262 19. 884 20.505 |} 21.127 | 21.748 | 22.369 | 22.991 | 23.612 | 24.233
40 24. 855 25. 476 26. 098 26.719 | 27.340 | 27. 962 | 28.583 | 29.204 | 29.826 | 30.447
50 31. 068 31. 680 32.311 32.933 | 33.554 | 34.175 | 34.797 | 35.418 | 36.039 | 36. 661
690 37. 282 37. 904 38. 525 39.146 | 39.768 | 40.389 | 41.010 | 41.632 | 42.253 | 42.875
70 43. 496 44,117 44. 739 45.360 | 45.981 | 46.603 | 47.224 | 47.845 | 48.467 | 49.088
80 49. 710 50. 331 50. 952 51.574 | 52.195 | 52.816 | 53. 438 | 54.059 | 54.681 | 55.302
90 55. 923 56. 545 57. 166 57. 787 | 58.409 | 59.030 | 59. 652 | 60.273 | 60.894 | 61.516
Tape Il.—For converting miles (of 5,280 feet) into metres.
(To convert miles into kilometres use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
Miles. 0. i. 2. 3. 4. De 6. Te Ss. 9.
ct) 00 1609 3219 4828 6437 8047 9656 | 11265} 12875 14484
410 16093 17703 19312 20922 22531 | 24140 | 25750) 27359 | 28968 30578
ZO 32187 33796 35406 37015 38624 | 40234 | 41843 | 43452 | 45062 46671
30 48280 49890 51499 53108 54718 | 56327} 57936 | 59546 | 61155 62765
49 64374 65983 67593 69202 70811 | 72421 } 74030 | 75639 | 77249 78858
50 80467 82077 83686 85295 86905 | 88514 | 90123 | 91733 | 93342 94951
60 96561 98170 99780 101389 | 102998 | 104608 | 106217 | 107826 | 109436 | 111045
7O 112654 114264 115873 117482 | 119092 | 120701 | 122310 | 123920 | 125529 | 127138 «
80 128748 130357 131966 133576 | 135185 |.136795 | 138404 | 140013 | 141623 | 143232
90 144841 146451 148060 149669 | 151279 | 152888 | 154497 | 156107 | 157716 | 159325
Kilometres.
0
£0
20
30
40
50
60
7O
SO
90
TasLe I11.—For converting kilometres into feet.
(To convert metres into feet use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
32808
65617
98425
131233
164042
196850
229658
262467
295275
3281
36089
68897
101706
134514
167322
200131
232939
265747
298556
6562
39370
72178
104987
137795
170603
203412
236220
269028
301837
9842
42651
75409
108267
141076
173884
206692
239501
272309
305117
13123
45952
78740
111548
144357
177165
209973
242782
275590
308398
5.
16404
49212
82021
114829
147637
180446
213254
246062
278871
311679
6.
19685
52493
85302
118110
150918
183727
216535
249343
282152
314960
22966
55774
88582
121391
154199
187007
219816
252624
285432
318241
26247
59055
91863
124672
157480
190288
223097
255905
288713
321522
29527
62336
95144
127952
160761
193569
226377
259186
291994
324802
~]
jar
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 4
TasLE LV.—For converting feet into millimetres.
(Divide the result by 1,000 to obtain metres.)
Feet 0. 1. 2. 3. 4d. 3. | 6. Te 8. 9.
0 0 305 610 914 1219 1524 1829 2134 2438 2743
3048 3353 3658 3962 4572 4877 5182 5486 5791
6096 6401 6706 7010 7620 7925 8230 8534 883
9144 9449 9754 10058 10668 | 10973} 11278 | 11582 1188
12192 12497 12802 13106 13716 | 14021 | 14326 | 14630 14935
15240 15545 15850 16154 16764 | 17069 | 17374 | 17678 17923
18288 18593 18898 19202 19812 | 20117 | 20422 | 20726 21031
70 21336 21641 21946 22250 22555 | 22860 | 23165} 23470 | 23774 24079
80 24384 24689 24994 25298 25603 | 25908 | 26213 | 26518 | 26822} 27127
90 27432 27737 28042 28346 28651 | 28956 | 29261 | 29566 | 29870 30175
TasLe V.—For converting metres into feet and inches.
Metres. 0. 0.1. | 0.2. | 0.3. | 0.4. | 0.5. | 0.6. | 0.7. | 0.8, | 0.9.
Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In.| Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In.| Ft. In.
Cr) 0 0 O39 Wy 007-9) | OT Soh Sal ei aed Gl B26) D By. 5) eoniie 4
i Sess gas (Sul Ot ye 4, S12 | a a ae OLS 6.905 £09 seo 8
2 GeGtb MOOT |Z 26 | 7 GG 10.5] Siaeeais 8.6.41 8: 10.3) 4 9°82. ol a 6.9
3 FeOstale LO On Oye lOmGsOr! 910) OF Ou ile Ton aye O07) 12 L712 eosGl lol nOns
4 13) Dob ets, SoA Ps Ola) 14 Ig. | 4 Se ait 71/15, 5.0)45 49:0) 16.-0:9
5 16 4.8] 16 &8| 17 0.7| 17 4.7] 17 8.6)18 05/18 4.5)18 9.4)19 0.3) 19 4.3
6 19 8.2] 20 0.2] 20 4.1] 20 80] 21 0.0] 21 3.9] 21 7.8) 21 11.8] 22°3.7/ 22 7.7
7 DO Gilles. S50) 28 We o| 23,10. 4, | 94) Seg) ogy Silo 11. 2) 95 3.1195 87) 125,11. 0
8 26 3.0] 26 69| 2610.8] 27 2.8) 27 6.7] 27 10.6) 28 26] 28 6.5] 28 10.5, 29 24
9 29 6.3] 2910.3] 30 22| 30 61 | 30101/31 20 31 60/31 9.9] 32 L832 5.8
‘
TasLe VI.—For converting inches and fractions nto millimetres.
Sp off eg geht a a a na ead we a ete! ca <A ae Wp ut
| 12 8 6 4 3 8 2h 2 |b ees 3 4 6 8) |e
° 0 Boe 3.8 4.21 6.4) 8.5] 9.5} 10.6} 12.7] 14.8] 15.9] 16.9) 19.1} 21.2) 22:9) 23.3
1 25.4) 27.5] 28.6] 29.6] 31.8) 33.9} 34.9] 36.0) 38.1) 40.2) 41.3] 42.3) 44.5] 46.6) 47.6 48.7
2 50.8, 52.9) 54.0] 50.0) 57.3) 59.3} 60.3) 61.4) 63.5] 65.6] 66.7] 67.7) 69.9] 72.0) 73.0) 74.1
3 76.2 8 3| 79.4] 80.4) 82.6) 84.7] 85.7| 86.8) 889) 91.0] 92.1/ 93.1) 95.3] 97.4) 98 4) 99.5
4 {101.6 103.7] 104.8) 105.8) 108.0) 110.1) 111. 1/112. 2) 114.3116. 4117. 5/118. 5 120. 7/122. 8 123, 8124. 9
5S } 127.0 129.1) 130.2} 131.2) 133.4) 135.5) 136. 5,137. 6| 139. 7141. 8/142. 9143. 9 146. 1/148. 2149, 2,150. 3
G ff 152.4 154.5] 155. 6} 156.6 158.8) 160.9] 161. 9163.0) 165. 1/167. 2168. 34169. 3 171. 5/173. 6 174. 6.175. 7
% 177.8) 179.9] 181. 0] 182.0) 184. 2) 186, 3] 187. 3/188. 4| 190. 5/192. 6|193. 7)194. 7 196. 9/199. 0 200. 0.201. 1
S$ | 203.2 205.3) 206. 4] 207. 4) 209. 6) 211.7) 212. 7213.8) 215. 9.218, 0/219. 1/220. 1/222. 3/224. 4 225, 4.296. 5
9 | 2236 230.7] 231.8 232. 8 235. 0) 237. 1] 238. 1/239, 2] 241.3243. 4 244.5 245. 5 247. 7/249. 8.250. B'251. 9
HO | 254.0 256. 1) 257. 2] 258.2) 260.4 262.5) 263.5264. 6. 2G6. 7.268. 8 269. 9.270. 9 273. 1275.2 276.2977. 3
Ai | 279.4 281. 5) 282. 6) 283.6) 285. 8 287. 9] 288. ie8 292. hae moneda a aoe: 6 301. pe?
Sra :
472
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
« LasLe VII.—For converting metres into inches.
Metres. i. 2. 3. 4. Je 8. 9.
° 0 39.4 7.7 | 1181 | 157.5] 196.8] 236.2] 275.6] 315.0] 354.3
10 393.7 | 433.1 | 4724 | 511.8 | 551.2] 5005] 629.9] 669.3] 7087] 748.0
ZO 787.4 | 826.8 | 8661 | 905.5 | 944.9] 984.2} 1023.6 | 1063.0 | 1102.4 | 1141.7
30 1181.1 | 1220.5 | 1259.8 | 1299.2 | 1338.6 | 1377.9.| 1417.3 | 1456.7 | 1496.1] 1535.4
40 1574.8 | 1614.2 | 1653.5 | 1692.9 | 1732.3 | 171.6 | 1811.0 | 1850.4 | 1889.8 | 1929.1
50 1968.5 | 2007.9 | 2047.2 | 2086.6 | 2126.0 | 2165.3 | 2204, 7 | 2044.1 | 2283.5 | 2522.8
60 2362.2 | 2401.6 | 2440.9 | 2480.3 | 2519.7 | 2559.0 | 2598.4 | 2637.8 | 2677.2 | 2716.5
70 2755.9 | 2795.3 | 2834.6 | 2874.0 | 2913.4 | 2959.7 | 2992.1 | 3031.5 | 3070.9] 3110.2
sO 3149.6 | 3189.0 | 32283 | 3267.7 | 3307.1 | 3346.4 | 3385.8 | 3425.2 | 3464.6 | 3503.9
90 S543) EB7 | soa2:0 9661, 4° |/3900.6 |/er40k1 | gyveisi) seIBED see. 3 [MeR07.6
i
‘TasLe VIIIl.—For converting inches into millimetres.
Inches. 0. | 1. 2. 3: 4. 5. 6. re 8. 9.
f
© 0 25.4 50. 8 76.2 | 101.6} 127.0! 152.4 | 177.8] 203.2] 228.6
10 254. 0 79.4 | 304.8 | 990.2 | 355.6| 381.0] 406.4] 431.8|. 457.2] 482.6
20 508.0 | 5334 | 5588 | 5842 | 609.6| 635.0] 660.4| 685.8| 711.2] 736.6
30 762.0 | 787.4 | g8i28 | 8382 | 863.6} 889.0] 9144| 939.8] 965.2] 990.6
40 1016.0 | 1041.4 | 1066.8 | 1092.2 | 1117.6 | 1143.0 | 1168.4 | 1193.8 | 1219.2] 1244.6
50 1270.9 | 1295.4 | 1320.8 | 1346.2 | 1371.6 | 1397:0 | 1422.4 | 1447.8 | 1473.2] 1498.6
60 1524.0 | 1549.4 | 1574.8 | 1600.2 | 1625.6 | 1651.0 | 1676.4 | 1701.8 | 1727.2 | 1752.6
70 1778.0 | 1803.4 | 18288 | 1854.2 | 1879.6 | 1905.0 | 1930.4 | 1955.8 | 1981.2 | 2006.6
1) 2032.0 | 2057.4 | 20828 | 2108.2 | 2133.6 | 2159.0 | 2184.4 | 2209.8 | 2235.2 | 2260.6
90 2086.0 | 2311.4 | 2336.8 | 2362.2 | 2387.6 | 2413.0 | 2438.4 | 2463.8 | 2489.2] 2514.6
TABLE 1X.—For converting hectares into acres.
Hectares. 0. i. 2. 3. 4. 3. 6. | Tv. 8. 9.
|
0 0 2.47 4.94 7.41 14.83 | 17.30} 19.77 | 22.24
10 24.71 | 27.18 | 29.65 | 32.12 39.54) 42.01) 44.48] 46.95
20 49.42 | 51.89 | 54.36 | 56.83 64.25) 66.72) 69.19] 71.66
30 74.13 | 76.60 | 79.07 | 81.54 88.96 | 91.43| 93.90] 96.37
40 98.84 | 101.31 | 103.78 | 106.25 113. 67 | 116,14 | 118.61 | 121.08
50 123.55 | 126,02 | 128.49 | 130.96 138.38 | 140,85 | 143.32 | 145.79
60 148.26 | 151.73 | 154.20 | 156.67 163.09 | 165.56 | 168.03 | 170.50
70 172.97 | 175.44 | 177.91 | 180.38 187.80 | 190.27 | 192.74] 195.21
SO 197.68 | 200.15 | 202.62 | .205. 09 212. 51 | 214.98 | 217.45} 219.92
90 222,39 | 204.86 | 227.33 | 229.80 238.22 | 240.69 | 243.16 | 245.63
TABLE X.—For converting acres into hectares.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Me
473
®
Acres. i. 2. Ba 6. 7 8s. 9.
© 405 .809 | 1.214 | 1.619} 2.023] 2.428] 2.893] 3.238| 3.642
10 4.452 | 4.856 | 5.261 | 5.666| 6.070] 6.475| 6.880) 7.284] 7.689
20 8.499 | 8.903 | 9.308 | 9.713 | 10.117 | 10.522 | 10.927 | 11.331 | 11. 736
30 12.546 | 12.950 | 13.355 | 13.760 | 14.164 | 14.569 | 14.974 | 15.378 | 15. 783
40 16.592 | 16.997 | 17.402. | 17.807 | 18.211 | 18.616 | 19.021 | 19.425 | 19.830
50 20.639 | 21.044 | 21.449 | 21.854 | 22, 258 | 22. 663 | 23.068 | 23.472 | 23.877
60 24.686 | 25.091 | 25.496 | 25.900 | 26.305 | 26.710 | 27.115 | 27.519 | 27.924
70 28.733 | 29.138 | 29.543 | 29.947 | 30.352 | 30.757 | 31.161 | 31.566 | 31.971
so 32.780 | 33.185 | 33.590 | 33.994 | 35.399 | 35.804 | 36.208 | 36.713 | 37.018
$0 36.827 | 37.232 | 37.637 | 38.041 | 38.446 | 38.851 | 39.256 | 39.660 | 40. 065
TABLE XI —For converting square kilometres into square miles.
ote . in 2. z Wisc] Se lee
kilometres.
© 0 0.386 | 0.772 | 1.158 | 1.544 2.703 | 3.089} 3.475
10 3.861 | 4.247 | 4.633 | 5.019 | 5.405 6.564 | 6.950] 7.336
20 7.722 | 8108 | 8494 | 8.880 | 9.266 10.425 | 10.811 | 11.197
30 11.583 | 11.969 | 12.355 | 12.741 | 13.197 14. 286 | 14.672 | 15. 058
40 15.444 | 15.830 | 16.216 | 16.602 | 16.988 18.147 | 18.533 | 18.919
50 19.305 | 19.691 | 20.077 | 20.463 | 20.849 22, 008 | 22.394 | 22. 780
6O 23.166 | 23.552 | 23.938 | 24.324 | 24.710 25. 869 | 26.255 | 26. 641
70 27.027 | 27.413 | 27.799 | 28.185 | 28.571 29.730 | 30.116 | 30.502
80 30.888 | 31.274 | 31.660 | 32.046 | 32.432 33. 591 | 33.977 | 34.363
90 34.749 |. 35.135 | 35.521 | 35.907 | 36.293 37. 452 | 37.838 | 38.224
TABLE XI1.—For converting square miles into hectares.
(To convert square miles into square kilometres use this table and divide the result by 100.)
Square | 9, 1. Ss 4, | 5. 7. 9.
miles.
rT) 0 259 77 | 1036] 1295} 1554] 1813 2331
10 2590 2849 3367 | 3626] 3885] 4144| 4403 4921
20 5180 5439 5957 | 6216] 6475 | 6734 | 6993 7511
30 7770 8029 8547 | 8806] 9065] 9324] 9583 10101
40 10360 | 10619 11137 | 11396] 11655] 11914 | 12173 12691
50 12950 | 13209 13727 | 13986 | 14245] 14504 | 14763 15281
6O 15540 | 15799 16317 | 16576] 16835 | 17094 | 17353 7871
70 18130 | 18389 18907 | 19166} 19425] 19684 | 19943 20461
SO 20720 | 20979 21497 | 21756 | 22015 | 22274] 22533 23051
90 23310 | 23569 24087 | 24346] 24605 | 24864 | 25123 25641
474
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
TapsLe XIII.—For converting centares or square metres into square yards.
Centares.
» 0.
0
11. 960 .
23. 920
3a. 880
47. 839
59. 799
71. 739
83. 719
95. 679
107. 639
i.
1. 196
13. 156
25. 116
37. O76
49. 035
60. 995
72. 955
84.915
96. 875
108. 835
2.
98. O71
110. 031
|
. 307
. 267
227
4. 784
. 744
. 704
. 663
2. 623
. 083
76. 543
. 003
100. 463
112.
5. 980
17. 940
29. 900
41. 859
53. 819
65. 779
77. 739
89. 699
101. 659
423 |113. 619
6.
7.176
19.136 | 2
31.096 | 32.2
43. 055 |
59. 015
66. 975
78. 935
90. 895
102. 855
114.815
ie
)104. O51
116. 011
45. 447
57. 407
69. 367
81. 327
93. 287
(105. 247
pes 207
58.
70. 563
82. 523
94, 483
106. 443
118. 403
TaBLE XLV.—For converting square yards unto centares or square metres.
Fd
Square
yards.
©.
- 445
. 807
). 168
8. 529
. 890
. Boe
4.
0. 836
Sey
17.
25.
34.
559
920
281
42. 643
51. 004
59. 365
67. 727
76. 088
Square
nieires.
0
19
20
0
107. 64
215. 28
322. 92
430. 55
538. 19
645. 83
753. 47
861. 11
968. 75
10. 76
118. 40
226. 04
333. 68
441. 32
548. 96
656. 60
764. 23
871. 87
979. 51
2.
1. 672
10. 034
18. 395
26. 756
30. 117
43. 479
51. 840
60. 201
68. 563
76. 924
21.53
129.17
236. 81
344. 44
452. 08
559. 72
667. 36
775. 00
882. 64
990. 28
3.
2. 508
10. 870
19. 231
27. 592
35. 954
44.315
52. 676
61. 038
69. 399
77. 760
678. 12
785. 76
893. 40
1001. 04
365. 97
473. 61
561. 25
688. 89
796. 53
904. 16
1011. 80
71. 071
79. 432
50. 185
63. 546
71. 907
80. 269
72,
. 743
81. 105
8.
6. 689
15. 050
| 23, 412
31. 773
40. 134
48. 496
56. 857
65. 218
73. 580
81. 941
}
9.
7. 525
15. 886
24. 248
32. 609
40. 970
49. 332
57. 693
| 66. 054
74. 416
82. 777
or centares into square feet.
1022. 57
64. 58
172: 22
279. 86
387. 50
495. 14
602. 7
710. 42
818. 05
925. 69
1033. 33
75. 35
182. 99
290. 62
398. 26
505. 90
613, 54
721.18
828. 82
936. 46
1044. 10
Ss.
86. 11
193. 75
301. 39
409. 03
516. 67
624. 30
731. 94
839. 58
947. 22
1054. 86
9.
96. 87
204. 51
312. 15
419. 79
527. 43
635. 07
742. 71
850. 35
957. 98
1065. 63
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 475
TasLE XVI.—For converting square feet into square decimetres.
(Divide the result by 100 to obtain square metres.)
Square feet. oO. i. 2. 3. 4. D- 6. Y. 8. 9.
C1) 0 92:29 18.58 27. 87 37.16 | 46.45 | 55.74 65.03 | 74.32 83. 61
10 92. 90 102. 19 111. 48 120. 77 130. 06 | 139.36 | 148.65 | 157.94 | 167.23 176. 52
20 185. 81 195. 10 204. 39 213.68 | 222.97 | 232.26 | 241.55 | 250. 84 | 260.13 | 269.42
30 278. 71 288. 00 297. 29 306.58 | 315.87 | 325.16 | 334.45 | 343.74 | 353.03 | 362. 32
40 371. 61 380. 90 390. 19 399. 48 408.78 | 418. 07 | 427.36 | 436.65 | 445. 94 455. 23
50 464. 52 473. 81 483. 10 492.39 | 501.68 | 510.97 | 520.26 | 529.55 } 538. 84 548. 13
6O 557. 42 566, 71 576. 00 585.29 | 594.58 | 603.87 | 613.16 | 622. 45 | 631. 74 641. 03
7O 650. 32 659. 61 668. 90 678.19 | 687.49 | 696.78 | 706.07 | 715.36 | 724.65 | 733.94
80 743. 23 Wo2L52 761. 81 771.10 | 780.39 |,789.68 | 798.97 | 808.26 | 817.55 | 826. 84
$0 836. 13 845. 42 854. 71 864.00 | 873.29 | 882.58 | 891.87 | 901.16 | 910.45 | 919.74
»
Square 0. i. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
metres.
Ct) 0 1550 3100 4650 6200 7750 9300 10850 12400 13950
10 15500 17050 18600 20150 21700 23250 24800 26350 27900 29450
20 31000 32550 34100 35650 37200 38750 40300 41850 43400 44950
30 46500 48050 49600 51150 52700 54250 55800 57350 58900 60450
AD 62000 63550 65100 66650 68200 69750 71300 72850. 74400 75950
30 77500 79050 80600 82150 83700 85250 86800 88350 89900 91450
6o 93000 94550 96100 97650 99200 | 100750 | 102300 |} 103850 | 105400 106950
7O 108500 110050 111600 113150 114700 | 116250 | 117800 | 119350 | 120900 122450
80 124000 125550 127100 128650 130200 | 131750 | 133300 | 134850 | 136400 137950
90 139500 141050 142600 144150 145700 | 147250 | 148800 | 150350 | 151900 153450
TABLE XVIII.—For converting square inches rnto square centimetres.
(Divide the number of square centimetres by 10,000 to obtain square metres.)
!
1) 0 6.45 12. 90 19. 35 25.81 | 32.26 | 38.71
£0 64. 52 70. 97 77. 42 83. 87 90. 32 | 96.77 | 103. 23
20 129. 03 135, 48 141. 94 148.39 | 154.84 | 161.29 | 167.74
30 193.55 | 200.00 206. 45 212.90 | 219.36 | 225.81. | 232.26
40 258. 07 264. 52 270. 97 277.42 | 283.87 | 290.32 | 296. 77
50 322. 58 29. 03 330. 48 341.94 | 348.39 | 354.84 | 361.29
60 387. 10 393. 59 400. 00 406.45 | 412.90 | 419.36 | 425.81
7O 451. 61 458. 07 464. 52 470.97 | 477.42 | 483.87 | 490.32
80 516. 13 522. 58 29. 03 535.48 | 541.94 | 548.39 | 554. 84
$o 580. 65 587. 10 593. 55 600.00 | 606.45 | 612.90 | 619.36
476 THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
Cubie
o. i. 2. 3. A. 5. 6. to 8. 9.
metres.
® 0 1. 308 2. 616 3. 924 5.232 | 6.540] 7.848 | 9.156 | 10.464 | 11.771
10 13. 079 14, 387 15. 695 17.003 | 18.311 | 19.619 | 20.927 | 22.235 | 23.543 | 24.851
20 26. 159 27. 467 28.775 30. 083 | 31.391 | 32.699 | 34.007 | 35. 314 | 36. 622 7. 930
30 39. 238 40. 546 41. 854 43.162 | 44.470 | 45.778 | 47.086 | 48.394 | 49.702} 51.010
40 52. 318 53. 626 54. 934 56.242 | 57.549 | 58.857 | 60.165 | 61.473 | 62.781 | 64. 089
50 65, 397 66. 705 68. 013 69.321 | 70.629 | 71.937 | 73.245 | 74.553 | 75.861 | 77. 169
60 78. 477 79. 785 81. 092 82.400 | 83.708 | 85.016 | 86.324 | 87.632 | 88.940 | 90.248
rau 91. 556 92. 864 94. 172 95.480 | 96.788 | 98.096 | 99.404 |100. 712 |102. 020 | 103. 327
SO 104.635 | 105.943 | 107.251 | 108.559 |109. 867 {111.175 }112. 483 |113. 791 |115.099 | 116. 407
90 117.715 | 119.023 | 120.331 | 121.639 ie 947 |124, 255 |125. 563 |126. 870 |128.178 | 129. 486
TaBLE XX.— For converting cubic yards into litres.
(To convert cubic yards into steres or cubic metres use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
Cubic yards. i. 2. 3. 4. dD. 6. 7. 8.
© 0 765 1529 2294 3058 3823 4587 5352 6116
10 7646 8410 9175 9939 10704 | 11468 | 12233 | 12998} 13962
20 15291 16056 16820 17585 18349 | 19114 | 19879 | 20643 | 21408 }-
30 22937 23701 24466 | 25230 25995 | 26760 | 27524 | 28289) 29053
46 30582 31347 32111 32876 33641 | 34405 | 35170 | 35934 | 36699
30 38228 38993 29757 40522 41286 | 42051 | 42815 | 43580} 44344
60 45874 46638 47403 48167 48932 | 49696 | 50461) 51225] 51990
ZO 53519 54284 55048 59813 56577 | 57342 |} 58107 | 58871} 59636
80 61165 61929 62694 63453 64223 | 64988 | 65752 | 66517 | 67281
$0 68810 69575 70339 71104 71869 | 72633 | 73398 | 74162} 74927
TABLE XX1.—For converting cubic feet into litres or cubic decimetres.
(Divide the number of litres by 1,000 for cubic metres.)
Cabic feet. e. | 4. 2. oe | 4. 5. 6. ri 8.
* =
oO 0 28.3 56. 6 85. 0 113.3 141.6 169.9 198.2 | 226.5
10 283. 2 311.5 339. 8 368. 1 396. 4 424.8} 453.1 481.4-| 509.7
20 566. 3 594. 7 23. 0 651.3 679. 6 707.9 | 736.2} 764.6 792. 9
30 849.5 877.8 906. 1 934.5 962.8 | 991.1 | 1019.4 | 1047.7 | 1076.0
49 1182. 7 1161.0 1189. 3 1217.6 1245.9 | 1274.3 | 1302.6 | 1330.9 } 1359. 2
oO 1415.9 1444. 2 1472.5 1500. 8 1529.1 | 1557.4 | 1585.8 | 1614,1 | 1642. 4
oO 1699, 1727.3 1755. 7 1784. 0 1812.3 | 1840.6 } 1868.9 | 1897.2 | 1925.6
0
70 1982, 2 2010. 5 2038. 8 2067.1 j 2095.5 | 2123.8 | 2152.1 | 2180.4 | 2208.7
SO 2260. 4 2293, 7 2322. 0 2350. 3+ | 2378.6 | 2406.9 | 2435.3 | 2463.6 | 2491.9
SO 2048. 5 2976.8 2600. 2 2633.5 | 2661.8 | 2690.1 | 2718.4 | 2746.7 | 2775.1
——
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. AUT
TasLe XXII—For converting cubic metres into cubic feet.
(To convert litres into cubic feet use this table and divide by 1,000.)
Cubiy 0. ae 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
metres.
rt) 0 35.3 70.6 | 105.9 | 141.3! 176.6] 211.9] 247.2] 2925] 317.8
10 353.1 | 3885 | 4238 | 459.1 | 494.4! 529.71 565.0] 600.3| 635.7] 671.0
20 706.3 | 741.6 | 7769 | 8122 | 847.5| 8829] 9182] 953.5] 9888] 1094.1
30 1059.4 | 1094.7 | 1130.1 | 1165.4 | 1200.7 | 1236.0 | 1971.3 | 1306.6 | 1341.9 | 1377.3
40 1412.6 | 1447.9 | 1483.2 | 15185 | 1553.8 | 1589.2 | 1624.5 | 1659.8 | 1695.1 | 1730.4
50 1765.7 | 1801.0 | 1836.4 | 1871.7 | 1907.0 | 1942.3 | 1977.6 | 2012.9 | 2048.2 | 2083.6
60 2118.9 | 2154.2 | 2189.5 | 2224.8 | 2960.1 | 2295.4 | 2330.8 | 2366.1 | 2401.4 | 2436.7
70 2472.0 | 2507.3 | 2542.6 | 2578.0 | 2613.3 | 2648.6 | 2683.9 | 2719.2 | 2754.5 | 2799.8
SO 2825.2 | 2860.5 | 2895.8 | 2931.1 | 2966.4 | 3001.7 | 3037.0 | 3072.4 | 3107.7 | 3143.0
90 3178.3 | 3213.6 | 32489 | 3284.2 | 3319.6 | 3354.9 | 3390.2 | 3425.5 | 3460.8) 34961
TaBLE XXIII.—For converting litres into cubic inches.
Litres. de 4. | 5. 6. Fe 8. 9.
183.1 | 244.1 | 305.1] 366.1] 497.2] 498.2) 549.2
793.3 | 854.3 | 915.4] 976.4 | 103%¢] 1098.4 | 1159.4
1403.5 | 1464.6 | 1525.6 | 1586.6 | 1647.6 | 1708.7 | 1769.7
2013.8 | 2074.8 | 2135.8 | 2196.8 | 2257.9 | 2318.9 | 2379.9
2502. 0 2624.0. | 2685.0 | 2746.1 | 2807.1 | 2868.1 | 2929.1 | 2990.1
3112.2 3234.2 | 3205.3 | 3356.3 | 3417.3 | 3478.3 | 3539.4 | 3600.4
3722.4 3844.5 | 3905.5 | 3966.5 | 4027.5 | 4088.6 | 4149 6 | 4210.6
4332. 7 4454.7 | 4515.7 | 4576.8 | 4637.8 | 4608.8 | 4759.8 | 4820.8
4942. 9 5064.9 | 5126.0 | 5187.0 | 5248.0 | 5309.0 | 5370.1 | 5431.1
5553. 1 5675.2 | 5736.2 | 5797.2 | 5858.2 | 5919.3 3080.9 | 6041. 3
TABLE XXIV.—Lor converting cubic inches into cubic centimetres.
(To convert cubic inches into litres use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
0 16. 4 65.5 | 81.9 98.3} 114.7
163. 9 180.3 229.4 | 245.8] 262.2] 278.6
327.7 344. 1 393.3 | 409.7 6.1] 442.5
491.6 508. 0 557.2 | 573.6 | 589.9 | 606.3
655.5 671.9 7210) "737.4 | 1753.8 | 770.2
819. 4 835. 7 884.9} 901.3] 917.7) 934.1
1048. 8 | 1065.2 } 1081.6 | 1097.9
983. 2 999. 6
1147,1 1163.5
1311.0 1327. 4
1474. 8 1491.2
1278. Wie 1294.
6
1442.1} 1458.5
3
1212. 6 | 1229.0 | 1245.4 | 1261.8
1376.5 | 1392.9 | 1409.3 | 1425.7
1573. 2 | 1589. 6
1622.
478 THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
\
TaBLE XXV.—Ffor converting hectolitres into bushels.
(To convert cubic metres to bushels use this table and multiply the result by 10.)
Hectolitres. ®. i. &. Be | 4. | oD. 6. rhc &. Ss.
fen 2 ei ak Ie ce ees | nee | |
© 0 2. 84 5. 68 8.51 | 11.35 | 14, 17.03} 19.86 | 22.70] 25.54
10 28. 38 31.22 34. 05 36.89 | 39.73 42.57) 45.40| 48.24] 51.08 | 53.92
20 56.75 59.59 62. 43 5.27 | 68.11! 70.94| 73.78| 76.62| 79.46) 92.29
30 85.13 87. 97 90. 81 93.65 | 96.48} 99.32 | 102.16 | 105.00 | 107.83 | 110.67
40 113.51 | 116.35 | 119.19 | 121.02 | 124.86 | 127.70 | 190.54 | 133.37 | 136.21 | 139.05
50 141.89 | 144.72 | 147.56 | 150.40 | 153.24 | 156.08 | 158.91 | 161.75 | 164.59 | 167.43
60 170.26 | 173.10 | 175.94 | 17878 | 181-62 | 184.45 | 187.29 | 190.13 | 192. 97 | 195. 80
70 198.64 | 201.48 | 204.32 | 207.16 | 209.99 | 212.83 | 215.67 | 218.51 | 221.34] 224.18
so 227,02 | 229.86 | 292.69 | 235.53 | 238.37 | 241.21 | 244.05 | 246,88 | 249.72 | 252.56
$0 255.40 | 258.23 | 261.07 | 263.91 | 266. 75 | 269.59 272.42 | 275.26 | 278.10 | 280.94
TABLE XXVI—For converting bushels into litres.
Bushels. 0. 1. Seti us ee teee | 4. 5. Ge ey. 8. 9.
© 0 35.2 70.5 105.7 | 141.0! 1762] 211.4] 2467] 281.9) 317.2
10 352. 4 387. 6 422.9 458.1 | 493.3 | 528.6| 563.8] 509.1 | 634.3 669.5
20 704.8 740.0 775.3 g10.5 | 945.7] 881.0] 916.2] 951.5 | 986.7] 1021.9
3 1057.2 | 1092.4 | 1127.7 | 1162.9 | 11981 | 1233.4 | 1268.6 | 1303.9 | 1339.1} 1374.3
40 1409.6 | 1444.8 | 1480.0 | 1515.3 | 1550.5 | 1585.8 | 1621.0 | 1656.2 | 1691.5 |) 1726.7
50 1762.0 | 1797.2 | 19824 | 1867.7 | 1902.9 | 1938.2 | 1973.3 | 2008.6 | 2043.9 | 2079.1
60 2114.4 | 2149.6 | 2184.8 | 2220.1 | 2255.3 | 2290.6} 2325.8 | 2361.0 | 2396.3 | 2431.5
70 2466.7 | 2502.0 | 2537.2 | 2572.5 | 2607.7 | 2642.9 | 2678.2 | 2713.4 | 2748.7] 2783.9
80 2819.1 ff 2854.4 | 2889.6 | 2924.9 | 2960.0 | 2995.3 | 3030.6 | 3065.8 | 3101.1 |} 3136.3
SO 3171.5 9 3206.8 | 3242.0 | 3277.3 | 3312.5 | 3347.7 | 3383.0 | 3418.2 | 3453.4 |) 3488.7
TABLE XXVII—For converting hectolitres into wine gallons.
i. 2. J 4. 3. 6. Je 8. 9.
26. 42 52. 83 79.25 | 105.67 | 132.09 | 158.50 | 184.92 | 211.34] 237.75
10 264.17 | 290.59 | 317.00 | 343.42 | 369.84 | 396.26 | 422. 67 | 449.09 | 475.51 | 501.92
20 528.34 | 554.76 | 581.18 | 607.59 | 634.01 | 660.43 | 686.84 | 713.26 | 739.68] 766.09
30 792.51 | 818.93 | 845.35 | 871.76 | 898.18 | 924.60 | 951.01 | 977. 43 |1003.85 | 1030. 26
40 1056.68 | 1083.10 | 1109.52 | 1185.93 |1162.35 1188.77 |1215. 18 |1241. 60 |1268. 02 | 1294. 44
50 1320.85 | 1347.27 | 1373.69 | 1400.10 |1426.52 1452.94 |1479. 35 |1505. 77 |1532. 19 | 1558. 61
60 1585.02 | 1611.44 | 1637.86 | 1664.27 |1690. 69 |1717. 11 |1743. 53 [1769.94 |1796. 36 | 1822. 78
70 1849.19 | 1875.61 | 1902.03 | 1928.44 |1954.86 1981.28 |2007. 70 /2034. 11 [2060.53 | 2086, 95
80 2113.36 | 2139.78 | 2166.10 | 2192.61 [2219.03 2245.45 |2271. 87 |2298. 28 |2324. 70 | 2351. 12
80 2577.53 | 2403.95 | 2430.37 | 2456.79 [2483.10 2509. 62 |2536. 04 2592. 45 2618. 87 | 2645.29
t
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
TaBLe XXVIII—For converting wine gallons into Litres.
479
0. 1. 2. 4. 3d. 6. Ze 8. 9..
gallons.
0 0 3.79 7.57 | 11.36 | 15.14] 18.93] 22.71] 26.50] 30.28| 34.07
10 37.85 | 0.64 45.43 | 49.21 | 53.00] 56.78| 60.57| 64.35| 6814] ‘71.92
20 75.71 | 79.49 | 83.28 | 87.06 | 90.85| 94.64] 98.42 | 102.21 | 105.99 | 109.73
30 113.56 | 117.35 | 121.13 | 124.92 | 12870 | 132.49 | 136.28 | 140.06 | 143.85} 147.63
40 151.42 | 155.20 | 158.99 | 162.77 | 166.56 | 170.34 | 174.13 | 177.92 | 181.70 | 185.49
50 189.27 | 193.06 | 197.84 | 200.63 | 204.41 | 208.20 | 211.98 | 215.77 | 219.56 | 223.34
60 227.13 | 230.91 | 234.70 | 238.48 | 242.97 | 246.05 | 249.84 | 253. 62 | 257.41 | 261.19
70 264.98 | 268.77 | 272.55 | 276.34 | 280.12 | 283.91 | 287.69 | 291. 48 | 295.26 | 299.05
80 302.83 | 306.62 | 310.41 | 314.19 | 317.98 | 321.76 | 325.55 | 329.33 | 333,12] 336.90
90 340.69 | 344.47 | 348.26 | 352.05 | 355.83 | 359.62 | 363.40 | 367.19 | 370.97] 374.76
TaBLE XXIX.—For converting wine quarts into millilitres.
(To convert quarts into litres use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
wie 0. 1. 2. 3. ANE OB ae hi 9s | PA che
quarts.
_ | ——
© 0 946 1893 2839 3785 | 4732| 5678 | 6625 | 7571 8517
10 9464 10410 | 11356 | 12303 | 19249] 14195] 15142] 16088! 17034] 17981
20 18927 19874 | 20820 | 21766 | 22713] 23659] 24605 | 25552 | 26198] 27444
30 28391 | 29337 | 30283 | 31230 | 32176] 33123] 34069| 35015] 35962} 36908
49 37854 | 38801 | 39747 | 40693 | 41640] 42586] 43592 | 44479] 45425] 46372
50 47318 | 48264 | 49211 | 50157 .| 51103 | 52050] 52996 | 53942] 54889] 55835
60 56782 | 57728 | 58674 59621 | 60567] 61513 | 62460] 63406 | 64352 | 65299
70 66245 | 67191 68138} 69084 | 70031 | 7O977 | T1923 | 72870), 7816 | 74762
80 75709 | 76655 | 77601 78548 | 79494 | 80440 | 81387) 82333 | 3280; 84226
90 85172 | 86119 | 87065 | sgoll | sg958| 89904 | 90850} 91797 | 92743 | 93690
TasLe XXX.—Lor converting hectolitres into wine quarts.
(To convert litres into_quarts use this table and divide the result by 100.)
ss : ac
a. ®% | 2. | 2 | 3. | 4 | 5 | 6. 7. S. 9.
| | |
° Oise LORS a pentes: |e S17.0. | Aaa) ehv528. Shea est Oil ee 730.7, 845.3 951.0
LO | 1056.7 | 1162.3 | 1268.0 | 1373.7 | 1479.4 | 1585.0} 1690.7) 1796.4] 1902.0] , 2007.7
ZO fF 2113.4 | 2219.0 | 2924.7 | 2430.4 | 2536.0} 2641.7] 2747.4] 2853.0] 2958.7] . 3064.4
SO | 3170.0 | 3275.7 | 3381.4 | 3487.1 | 3592.7) 3698.4] 3804.1 | 3909.7] 4015.4 4121.1
4 | 4296.7 | 4332.4 | 4438.1 | 4543.7 | 4649.4 | 4755.1} 4860.7} 4966.4 | 5072.1 5177.7
SO | 5283.4 | 5389.1 | 5494.7 | 5600.4 | 5706.1 | 5811.8} 5917.4] 60231! Gians| 6234.4
Go | 6340.1 | 6445.8 | 6551.4 | 6657.1 | 6762.8 | 6368.4] 6974.1] 7079.8| 7185.4 7291.1
7O | 7396.8 | 7502.4 | 7608M1 | 7713.8 | 7819.4) 7925.1] 8030.8] 8136.5] 8242.1 8347. 8
SO | 8453.5 | 8559.1 | 8664.8 | 8770.5 | 8876.1 | g98l.8| 9087.5] 9193.1] 92088} 9404.5
90 | 9510.1 | 9615.8 | 9721.5 | 9827.1 | 9932.8 | 100385] 10144.1 | 10249.8 | 10355.5 | 10461.2
|
45
TasBLE XXXI.—For converting litres into fluid ounces.
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
Litres. | oO.
e 0
10 338. 1
20 676.3
30 1014. 4
40 1352. 6
5 1690. 7
6O 2028. 8
7 2367. 0
80 2705. 1
So 3043. 2
0.
Fuid ounces.
o 0
10 29. 57
ZO 59.15
30 88. 72
40 118. 29
50 147. 87
60 177. 44
gO 207. 02
SO 236. 59
90 266. 16
62. 10
91. 68
121. 25
150. 83
180. 40
209. 97
239, 55
269. 12
5. 91
35. 49
65. 06
94. 64
124. 21
153. 78
183. 36
212.93
242. 50
272. 08
101.4
439. 6
777.7
1115. 9
1454. 0
1792. 1
2130. 3
2468. 4
2806. 5
3144.7
135. 3/
473. 4
811.5
1149. 7
1487.8
1825. 9
2164.1
2002. 2
2840. 4
3178.5
11. 83
41. 40
70. 98
100. 55
130. 12
| 159. 70
189. 27
218. 85
248. 42
277. 99
as
bie
LJ)
nD
8
@
202. 9
541. 0
879. 2
1217.3
1555. 4
1893. 6
2231. 7
2569. 8
2908. 0
3246. 1
236. 7
574. 8
913.0
1251.1
1589. 2
1927.4
2265. 5
2603. 7
2941.8
3279. 9
8.
270.5
608. 6
946. 8
1284. 9
1623. 1
1961. 2
2299. 3
2637. 5
2975. 6
3313. 8
centilitres.
23. 66
53. 23
82. 81
112. 38
141. 95
171.53
201. 10
230. 67
260. 25
289. 82
9.
304.3
642.5
980. 6
1318. 7
1656.9
1995. 0
2333. 2
2671.3
3009. 4
3347. 6
iaben ens
26. 62
56. 19
85. 76
115, 34
144. 91
174. 48
204. 06
233. 63
263, 21
292. 78
TABLE XX XIII.—For converting tonneauzx or milliers into long tons, (of 2,240
pounds.)
(To convert kilograms into long tons use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
Tonneaux 0.
or milliers. ;
9 0
£O 9. 842
20 19, 684
30 29.526
40 39. 368
50 49. 210
60 59. 052
70 68. 894
SO 78. 736
i.
0. 984
10. 826
20. 668
30. 510
40. 352
50. 194
60. 036
69. 878
79. 720
89. 562
1. 968
11. 810
21. 652
31. 494
41. 336
51.178
| 61.020
70. 862
80. 704
90. 546
3. 937
13. 779
23. 621
33. 463
43, 305
53. 147
62. 989
72. 831
82. 672
92. 514
4, 921
14, 763
24. 605
34. 447
44, 289
54. 131
63, 973
73. 815
83. 657
93. 499
5. 905
15. 747
25. 589
39. 431
45, 273
55. 115
64, 957
74. 799
84. 641
94, 483
6, 889
16. 731 |
26. 573
36. 415
46, 257
56. 099
65. 941
75. 783
85. 625
95. 467
7. 874
17. 716
27, 557
37, 399
47, 241
57. 083
66, 925
76. 767
86. G09
96. 451
bt
8. 858
18. 700
28. 512
38. 384
48. 226
58. U68
67. 910
77. 753
87, 593
97. 435
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
431
TaBLE XXXIV.— For converting long tons (of 2,240 lbs. each) into kilograms.
(Divide the result by 1,000 for tonneaux or milliers.)
Long tons.
81285
91445
31498
41658
01819
61979
72140
82301
92461
62996
73156
83317
93477
3048
13209
23369
33530
43690
53851
64012
74172
84333
94493
4064
14225
24385
34546
44707
54867
65028
75188
85349
95509
55883
66044
76204
86365
96525
56899
67060
77220
87381
27434
37594
47755
o7915
68076
78236
88397
97542 | 98558
8128
18289
28450
38610
48771
58931
69092
79252
82413
9G574
9145
19305
29466
39625
49787
59947
70103
80269
90429
100599
TaBLE XXXV.—For converting tonneaux or milliers into short tons, (of 2,000.
pounds.)
‘Lonneaux
or imnilliers.
90
(To convert kilograms into short tons use this table and divide the result by 1,000.)
56. 217
67. 240
78. 263
89. 286
100. 309
90. 389
LOL. 412
92. 593
103. 616
5. 512
16, 535
27. 558
38. 581
49. 604
60. 627
71. 650
82. 673
93. 696
104. 719
17. 637
7. 716
18. 739
29. 762
40. 785
51. 808
62. 831
73. 894
84. 877
95. 900
41. 887
52. 910
63. 933
74. 956
85. 979
97. 002
106. 923 |108. 025
9.
WEEP AL
20. 944
31. 967
42. 990
o4. 013
65. 036
059
082
105
28
~
os)
=)
oMnrND
ery PS
ra
S
TaBLE XXXVI.—For converting short tons (of 2,000 lbs. each) into kilograms.
Short tons.
0.
9072
18144
27216
36288
45360
54432
63504
72576
81647
(Divide the result by 1,000 for tonneaux or milliers.)
i.
2.
1814
10886
19958
29030
38102
47174
56246
65318
74390
83462
oe
2722
11794
20865
29937
39009
48081
7153
66225
75297
84369
4.
3629
12701
21773
30845
39917
48988
58060
67132
76204
85276
5.
4536
13608
22680
31752
40824
49896
58968
68040
77111
86183
6.
5443
14515
23587
32659
41731
50803
59875
68947
78019
87091
Te
6350
15422
24494
33566
42638
51710
60782
69854
78926
87998
8S.
7258
16329
20401
34473
43545
52617
61689
70761
79833
88905
62596
71668
80740
89812
31s
482 THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
TasLE XXXVII.—For converting kilograms into avoirdupois pounds.
7. 8. | S.
ee a es | eee! |
0 2.205 4. 409 6. 614 8.818} 11.023) 13,228) 15.432) 17. 637, 19. 841
22. 046 24, 251 26. 455 28.660 | 30.864) 33.069, 35.274) 37. 478) 39. 683) 41. 887
44, 092 46. 297 48. 501 50.706 | 52.910) 55.115) 57.320] 59.524) 61.729 63.933
|
66. 138 68. 343 70. 547 72. 752 | 94.956] 77.161) 79.366) 81.570) 83.775! 85.979
88. 184 90. 389 92. 593 94.798 | 97.002} 99.207) 101. 412) 103. 616) 105. S21 107. 025
110.230} 112.435} 114.639 | 116.844 | 199. 048) 121. 253) 123. 458) 125. 662) 127. oo 130. O71
132.276 | 134.481 | 136.685 | 138.890 | 141.094) 143.299) 145.504) 147. 808) 149.913) 152.117
154. 322 | 156.527 | 158.731 | 160.936 | 163.140) 165. 345) 167.550) 169. 754 171. 959 174. 163
176. 368 | 178.573 | 180.777 | 182.982 | 185. 186} 187.391} 189. 596) 191. 800) 194. 005, 196. 209
198.414 | 200.619 | 202.823 | 205.028 | 207. 232) 209. 437) 211. 642) 213.846 216. Om 218. 255
|
TaBLE XXXVIII.—For converting avoirdupois pounds into grams.
Pounds. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. | 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
0 0 454 907 1361 | 1814] 2268] 2722] 3175] 3629] 4082
10 4536 4990 5443 5897 | 6350| 6804} 7258| 7711] 8165] 8618
20 9072 9526 9979 | 10433 | 10886 | 11340} 11794 | 12247 12701 | 13154
30 13608 | 14062 | 14515 | 14969 | 15422] 15876] 16329] 16783] 17237| 17690
40 18144 | 18597 | 19051 | 19505 | 19958} 20412] 20865] 21319] 21773 | 22226
50 22680 | 23133 | 23587 | 24041 | 24494] 24948] 25401 | 25855 | 26309] 26762
60 e7216 | 27669 | 28123 | 28577 | 29030] 20484] 290037] 30391] 30845] 31298
70 31752 2205 | 32659 | 33113 | 33566] 34020] 34473 | 34927 | 35381 | 35834
SO 36288 | 36741 | 37195 | 37649 | 38102] 38556] 39009] 39463] 39917] 40370
90 4024 | 41277 | 41731 | 42185 | 42638] 43092] 43545 | 43999] 44453} 44906
TaBLE XXXIX.— For converting kilograms into avoirdupois pounds and ounces.
Kilogram. f 0. | 0.1. | 0.2. | 0.3. | 0.4. | 0.5. | 0.6. | 0.7. | 0.8. |' 0.9.
lbs. oz. | lbs, oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz. | lbs. oz
0 000) 0 35] 0°71] 0106) OF41) 1 ae 1 Se 2 Sy abe 15.7
1 2°3.3| 2 6.8| 2103) 2139] 3 44]''3 49] 3°84} 31201 73H5.5) 4 3.0
2 465] 4101] 4.136] 5 11] 5 47] 5 82] 5117) 51521 626 6 63
3 698] 6133] 7 09] 7 44] 7 79] 7115] 7150] 8 25 8 GO| 8 9.6
4 8131] 9 0.6] 9 41] 9 77] 9112) 914.7110 23110 5.8 10 9.3] 1012.8
5 uo4/ un 39] un 74{ mi0fmissie 2022 55/12 9.111212.6 13 01
6 13 3.6] 13 7.2] 1310.7] 1314.2]14 1.814 5.3) 14 8.8] 14 12.3] 1415.91 15 3.4
7 15 6.9] 1510.4] 1514.0] 16 1.5] 16 50/16 86 16 12.1] 16 15.6] 17 3.1) 17 6.7
8 1710.2] 1713.7] 18 1.3] 18 48/18 83] 18 11.8] 18 15.4119 2.9119 64) 19 9.9
9 1913.5] 20 1.0] 20 4.5] 20 8.0] 20 116] 2015.1] 21 26 21 6.2] 21 9.7 2113.2
10 22 0.7| 22 4.3] 22 7.8] 2211.3 | 22 14.8) 23 2.4] 23 5.9] 23 9.41 2313.0) 24 0.5
al 24.4.0] 24 7.5] 24111) 24146125 21/25 5.6] 25 9.9] 25 12.7] 26 0.2) 26 3.8
12 26 7.3] 2610.8] 26143] 27 1.9] 27 5.4) 97 8.9] 27 12.4] 28 0.0] 28 35/28 7.0
13 28 10.6} 2814.1] 29 16} 29 5.1] 29 8.7] 29 12.9] 299 15.7] 30 3.2} 30 6.8) 30 10.3
14 3013.8] 31 14] 31 4.9] 31 8.4] 31 11.9] 31 15.5] 32 3.0] 32 6.5] 32 10.0) 32 13.6
15 33 11| 33 46] 33 82] 3311.7] 33 15.2) 34 27] 34 6.3] 34 9.8] 3413.3)35 0.9
16 35 4.4] 35 7.9] 35114] 3515.0] 36 25] 36 6.0] 36 9.6) 36 13.1] 37 0.6)37 4.1
a7 37 7.7 | 37112] 3714.7] 38 22] 38 5.8) 38 9.3] 38 12.8] 39 0.3) 39 39/39 7.4
as 3910.9] 3914.5] 40 20] 40 5.5] 40 9,0] 4012.6] 41 0.1) 41 3.6) 41 7.1) 41 10.7
19 4114.2) 42 17] 42 5.3] 42 8.8 42 12.3) 42 15.8] 43 3.4] 43. 6.9] 43 10.4) 43 13.9
20 441.5] 44 5.0] 44 85] 44121] 44 15.6) 45 3.1) 45 6.6] 45 10.2] 45 13.7) 46 1.2
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
483
TaBLE XL.—For converting avoirdupois pounds and ounces into grams.
Avoir.
pounds.
SCSBDRMANRH HES
wee ee ee ee ae
SESEGMraanwra wm
0. |loz. 2oz,
| 28) 57
4g0\ 510
936) 964
1361/1389 1417
i814/1843.1871
2268 2206 2325
2722 2750 2778
3175 3204 3232
3629 3657 3685
4082 4111/4739
41536 4564 4593
1990 5018 5046
5443 5472 5500
5897 5925 5953
6350 6379 6407
(5804 6832 6861
7258 7286 7314
7711\7740,7768
165 8193 8222
S618 8646 8675
4072 9100 9129
(Divide the result by 1,000 for kilograms.)
30z. | 402.
113
567
1021
1474
1928
2381
2835
3289
3742
4196
4649
5103
5907
6010
6464
6917
7371
7825
8278
. 8732
9185
5 0z,
60z. | 7oz.
8 oz.
9 oz.
6152
6606
7059
7512 | 7541
7966
8420
8874 | 8902
9327
10 0z. | 11 oz.
12 0z. |} 13 0z.
340 | 369
822
8959
9412 | 9441
Kilograms | 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. | 5 | 6 | 7 | S&S | ®
0 0 35.3 70.5 | 105.8 | 141.1] 1764] 21.6) 2469) 2922|- 317.5
10 352.7 | 3880 | 423.3 | 4586 | 493.8] 529.1] 564.4 599.7 | 634.9 | 670.2
20 705.5 | 740.7 | 776.0 | 811.3 | 846.6) 881.8] 9171} 9524) 987.7] 1022.9
30 1058.2 | 1093.5 | 1128.8 | 1164.0 | 1199.3 | 1234.6 | 1269.8 | 1305.1 | 1340.4 | 1375.7
40 1410.9 | 1446.2 | 1481.5 | 1516.8 | 1552.0 | 1587.3 | 1622.6 | 1657.9 1693.1 | 1728.4
50 1763.7 | 1799.0 | 1834.2 | 1869.5 | 1904.8 | 1940.0 | 1975.3 | 2010.6 , 2045.9] 2081.1
60 2116.4 | 2151.7 | 2187.0 | 2222.2 | 2257.5 | 2292.8 | 2328.1 | 2363.3 2398.6 | 2433.9
70 2460.2 | 2504.4 | 2539.7 | 2575.0 | 2610.2 | 2645.5 | 2680.8 | 2716.1 | 2751.3 | 2786.1
SO 2921.9 | 2857.2 | 2892.4 | 2927.7 | 2963.0 | 2998.3 | 3033.5 | 3068.8 3104.1] 3139.4
90 3174.6 | 3209.9 | 3245.2 | 3280.4 | 3315.7 | 3351.0 | 3386.3 | 3421.5 | 3456.8] 3492.1
Taste XLII—For converting avoirdupois ounces into grams.
0. i. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Je 8. 9.
0 28.3 56.7 85:0 | 113.4] 141.7] 170.1] 1984] 2268] 255.1
10 293.5 | 311.8 | 340.2 | 3685 | 396.9| 425.2] 453.6] 481.9] 510.3] 538.6
20 567.0 | 595.3 | 623.7 | 652.0 | 680.4] 7087] 737.1} 765.4| 793.8] 622.1
30 850.5 | 8738 | 907.2 | 935.5 | 963.9] 992.2 | 1020.6 | 1048.9 | 1077.3 | 1105.6
40 1134.0 | 11623 | 1190.7 | 1219.0 | 1247.4 | 1275.7 | 1304.1 | 1332.4 | 1360.8 | 1389.1
50 1417.5 | 1445.8 | 1474.2 | 1502.5 | 1530.9 | 1559.2 | 1587.6 | 1615.9 | 1644.3} 1672.6
60 1701.0 | 1729.3 | 1757.7 | 1786.0 | 1814.4 | 1842.7 | 1871.1 | 1899.4 | 1927.8} 1956.1
70 1984.5 | 2012.8 | 2041.2 | 2069.5 | 2097.9 | 2126.2 | 2154.6 | 2182.9 | 2211.3 | 2259.6
sO 2268.0 | 2296.3 | 2324.7 | 2353.0 | 2381.4 | 2409.7 | 2438.1 | 2466.4 | 2494.8 | 2523.1
90 2551.5 | 2579.8 | 2608.2 | 2636.5 | 2664.9 | 2693.2 | 2721.6 | 2749.9 | 2778.3 | 28066.
484
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF
TasLE XLIII—For converting kilograms into troy ounces.
0.
iW) 0
10 321.50
20 643. 01
30 964. 51
40 1286. 02
50 1607. 52
60 1929. 03
7O 2250. 53
SO 2572. 03
$0 2893. 54
32.15
353. 65
675. 16
996.
1318.
1639.
1961.
2282. 68
2604.
2925.
6A.
385.
707.
1028.
1350.
1671.
1993.
2314.
2636.
2957.
30
81
31
8]
32
82
33
83
33
84
96. 45
417. 96
739. 46
1060. 96
1382. 47
1703. 97
2025. 48
2346. 98
2668. 48
2989. 99
128. 60
450. 11
771. 61
1093. 11|
1414. 62
1736. 12
2057. 63
2379.13
2700. 64
3022. 14
192. 90
514. 41
835. 91
1157. 42
1478. 92
1800. 42
2121. 93
2443. 43
2764. 94
3086. 44
868. 0
1189.
1511.0
1832,
2154.
Q475,
2797. 09
3118759
8.
257. 20
578. 71|
900, 21
1221.72
1543, 22
1864. 72
2186. 23
2507.73,
2829, 24
3150. 4
9.
289. 35
610. 86
932. 36
1253. 87
1575. 37
1896. 87
2218. 38
2539. 88
2861. 39
3182. 89
0. 4, ee Gen Paes 8.
0 62. 93,31 | 124.42, 155.52] 186.62) 217.73! 248.g3| 279.93
311.04] 342.14 | 373.25] 404.35 | 435.45, 466.56] 497.66] 588.76) 559.87] 590.97
622.08 | 653.18 | 684.28] 715.39 | 746.49, 777.59) 808.70 839.80) 870.91| 902.01
933.11 | 964.22 | 998.32 | 1026. 43.| 1057.53, 1088. 63] 1119.74] 1150. 84) 1181.94] 1213. 05
1244.15 | 1275.26 | 1306.36 | 4937.46 | 1368.57, 1399. 67] 1430. 77] 1461. 88) 1492. 98] 1524. 09
1555.19 | 1586.29} 1617.40 | 1648.50 | 1679.60, 1710.71] 1741.81] 1772. 92} 1804. 02 1835. 12
1866.23 | 1897.33 | 1928.44 | 1959.54 | 1990.64 2021.75] 2052. 85] 2083.95) 2115. 06| 2146. 16
2177.27 | 2208.37 | 2239.47 | 2270.58 | 2301. 68 2332. 78] 2363. 89] 2394. 99) 2426. 10] 2457. 20
2488.30 | 2519.41 | 2550.51 | 2581. 62 | 2612.72, 2643. 82] 2674. 93] 2706. 03) 2737.13} 2768. 24
2799.34 | 2890.45 ) 2861.55] 2892, 65 | 2923.76, 2954. 86) 2985. 96) 3017. 07) 3048. 17) 3079. 28
TasLe XLV.—For converting grams into grains.
1. 2. 3. 4. Bis! | Core] awe ete oes
ental ee
15.43| 30.86| 46.30] 61.73| 77.16} 92.59] 108.03/ 123.46] 130.89
169.75 | 185.19 | 200.62 | 216.05) 231.48) 246.92] 262.35] 277.78] 293. 21
324.08 | 339.51 | 354.94} 370.37] 385.81| 401.24] 416.67, 432.10] © 447.53
478.40 | 493.83 | 509.26 | 524.69| 540.13) 555.56] 570.99} 586.42| 601. 86
632.72 | 648.15 | 663.58 | 679.02] 694.45} 709.88) 725.31] 740.75| 756.18
787.04} 802.47] 817.91 | 833.34) 848.77] 864.20) 879.64! 895.07} 910.50
941.36 | 956.80 | 972.23 | 987. 66] 1003. 09) 1018. 53) 1033. 96] 1049. 39) 1064. 82
1095.69 | 1111.12 | 1126.55 | 1141. 98) 1157. 42) 1172. 85| 1188. 98] 1203. 71| 1219. 14
1250.01 | 1265.44 | 1280.87 | 1296.30] 1311. 74| 1327.17] 1342. 60] 1358. 03| 1373. 47
1404.33 | 1419.76 | 1435.19 | 1450. 63| 1466, 05, 1481. 49] 1496. 921 1512. 36, 1527. 79
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 485
TaBLE XLVI.—Vor converting grains into grams.
Grains, 5. 6. 7. 8.
————
oO 0. 1296 0.1944 | 0.2592 | 0.3240 | 0.3888 | 0.4536 | 0. 5184 0. 583:
10 0. 7776 0.8424 | 0.9072 | 0.9720 | 1.0368 | 1.1016 | 1. 1664 a5
20 1, 4256 1. 4904 1. 5552 | 1. 6200 | 1.6848 | 1.7496 | 1.8144 i
380 2. 0736 2.1384 | 2.2032 | 2.2680 | 2.3328 | 2.3976 | 2. 4624 Bre
40 2. 7216 2.7864 | 2.8512 | 2.9160 | 2.9808 | 3.0456 } 3.1104 a
50 3. 3696 3.4344 | 3.4992 | 3.5640 | 3. 6288 | 3.6936 | 3.7584 | 3.8:
60 4. 0176 4.0824 | 4.1472 | 4.2120 | 4.2768 | 4.3416 | 4. 4064 4.
70 4. 6656 4.7304 | 4.7952 | 4.8600 | 4.9248 | 4.9896 | 5. 0544 5.
8O 5. 3136 5.3784 | 5.4432 | 5.5080 | 5.5728 | 5.6376 | 5. 7024 5.
90 5. 9616 6.0264 | 6,0912 | 6.1560 | 6.2208 | 6 6.
. 2856 | 6.3504
LIST OF TABLES,
Measures of length.
of surface.
of capacity.
Weights.
Scheme of the metric system.
Scale of metre and inches,
Table 1. Kilometres into miles
2. Miles into metres.
Kilometres into feet.
. Feet into millimetres,
Metres into feet and inches.
3.
4
5.
6. Inches and fractions into millimetres,
7. Metres into inches,
8. Inches into millimetres.
9. Hectares into acres.
10. Acres into hectares,
11. Square kilometres into square miles,
12. Square miles into hectares.
13. Centares or square metres into square yards,
14. Square yards into centares or square metres.
15. Square metres or centares into square feet.
16. Square feet into square decimetres.
17. Square metres or centares into square inches.
18. Square inches into square centimetres,
19. Cubic metres or steres into cubic yards.
20. Cubic yards into litres,
Table 21.
Cubic feet into litres or cubic decimetres.
Cubic metres into eubic feet.
Litres into cubic inches.
. Cubic inches into cubic centimetres.
Hectolitres into bushels.
. Bushels into litres.
. Hectolitres into wine gallons,
. Wine gallons into litres.
Wine quarts into millilitres,
Hectolitres into wine quarts.
. Litres into fluid ounces.
Fluid ounces into centilitres.
Tonneaux or milliers into long tons,
Long tons into kilograms.
Tonneaux or milliers into short tons.
Short tons into kilograms.
Kilograms into ayoirdupois pounds.
Avoirdupois pounds into grams.
Kilograms into avoirdupois lbs. and ouness.
Avoirdupois pounds and ounces into grams.
Kilograms into avoirdupois ounces.
Avoirdupois ounces into grams.
Kilograms into troy ounces.
. Troy ounces into grams,
Grams into grains.
Grains into grams,
CONTENTS.
‘REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Letter of Professor Henry to Congress .....-..----.---------- Seconds chose aronos
Letter of Chancellor and Secretary, submitting Report of 1865.......---....- Hb pene
Officers and Regents of the Smithsonian Institution ---.- 5 ocooGooee Bop hiccQcncnes
Members ez officio and honorary members of the Institution -.......-- ssc sueehiae 2
EAOPEADING GOT SAMIZAMON son iia accldoeciea) sa sions alcne select a veteneegeees
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, Prof. HENRY, for 1865....:....-- Sere COS SoCs
Report of the Assistant Secretary, Prof. Baird, for 1865...........-..----.----.- ape
Statistics of international exchange. ........-.----.--.- / Boapodobseneoedsc
Additionstorhercolleciionsis 222 2.2.4. -ssccs-coese woo 5 a= Saha se Shas es Be
Distribution of duplicate specimens. ..-.......-..--.------ Sea Has sAace eS 2
Honations toihe museumin S65 .s-eee e ese esses ees sees ce So eee eee 8
MdaTESsOs, Of LOTELEN/ WISHUMELOUS. 2 s)- 2 dole banat eee eaten Sen che ce Cups
LIST OF METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS AND OBSERVERS....--.----------- ------ Ze
METEOROLOGICAL MATERIAL RECEIVED DURING 1865...........-------- 2-22 2-0
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE|COMMINTER..J.-..-.--- .s-.0----5%5 Smet Soercissaeee
REPORT OF THE BUILDING, COMMITTER: -.. J---cccacss4 seeedece ees aeschaaens
JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE. BOARD OF REGENTS...........----.--------
EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE INSTITUTION..-..-...----..-----
EULOGY ON GEN. JOSEPH G. TOTTEN, U.S. A., by GEN. J. G. BARNARD, U.S. A-
GENERAL APPENDIX.
MEMOIR OF DUCROTAY DE BLAINVILLE, by M. FLOURENS ..---..--....----.----
REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL
HisTORY OF GENEVA, from July, 1863, to June, 1864, by Dr. CHossaT .-.....-.
REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL
HISTORY OF GENEVA, from July, 1864, to June, 1865, by M. E. PLANTAMOUR..
THE AURORA BOREALIS, OR POLAR LIGHT; ITS PHENOMENA AND LAWS, by Prof.
IBYGUAS NO OMIS meer s aayscinieee Bios aie oc oo ete eee aces ceed oe cB mets
TER SENSES: SONSE OR PEELING 2... -qecseosc ccs ssesesccesc cs 3 os aes ee
DENSE OFISMEDE 32... 3. jo... = A ae Oo’ te ee
ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY ; a course of lectures by Prof. CARLO MATTEUCCI..---.----
PALAFITTES OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL, by
136 IDISOR cosas scese socessobe bee so59 st snscbaseges ses dbctos ase eseeenaseae
EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCHES ON THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM
OF A LiquID MASS WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY, &C., by J.
JENIN SS = oo DE OSS CAC OD EES EE SOC ECAGH CARBO OSecs ase aise ao eee
BOR Geer tose aca se ina cere es se acme cine te ec ene Sie eee Sia sui wecalseeioman
PRIZE QUESTIONS.—Royat DANISH SOCIETY OF SCIENCES.-..--- Oe Seseeees
IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF VIENNA...---------
PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF THE NUOVI LINCEI.----...--- 5
ROYAL SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY INSTITUTE OF LOM-
IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, AND ARTS
OR TLEE LSGGsss ee ee eee ces cane cece se icsecane
DUNKIRK SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SCI-
PNCES PLETTHRS ANDVARTS) s-/s252 fice ceresce acess ce
. METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, with tables, by Prof. H. A. NEwTron
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INDEX.
PAGE.
Wendemy- OL Natural’ Sciences, Chicago. 22222 22st 52.2 oe toc esc ececee eee eene oes 61, 62
Academy of Natural Sciences,’Philadelphia:<::2-:..... 2.20... .-2-..-.e 45, 62, 63, 66, 122
mcademy or Natural Sciences, San’ Prancis¢0:2s2\.2e-0- -2---csces cece cesses = ecbe 66
PNUULESSUS OMLOLOlO Mr INSWtUMONS occ cots es ceecetees sence oa.nnaeasece se comm eneeee 89
LSP OL TESS 2aS\(6 6.01 00) i a ag Ee ae MG le Bd 124
Wericultural Department: “Aid rendered by 2222552252... 2-2. Sec de- ssc. casa ceae 73
Amsa-mreveorite, name-to be“ IrwinsAinsa, =: 222h2tsc'555 52 eb see ces seed eee 67
Alexander, B.S. Construction of part of building by...-...--....-..----+-------- 15, 111
Plexanderms@ sate Translations by sss 2s sss ee sees 175, 189, 200, 249, 291, 346, 409
American Geographical and Statistical Society. Map referred to.....--.-----.---- 124
American Philosophical Society, publish Wood on Myriapoda .--...-..------------ 43
Anatomy. Blainville’s Researches:--- -:-- 2-2 2222-222 -2ee--- haa Nos sieceuse nace 178
Puitignities'of Switzerland, &cseessssss20 ares coc PR tae. ose eS ee es 346
encheolopy. American 222. f2ss-sssssessccecs < SaAemasesseee ses seh Sess koe 48, 49, 50
puemitect,.-A. Clussiappointed Stu LCs.) Lac ue 3 ry RSME eed ae Slaees lil
PIBNSNNY sas A Heke cso tet sts ceS os een ae OS Suey 22 112
Bistimates# ssa teshesss sss ssce ewes tase cose saeco esse ctemecce cece eee
Prem Pesncdinion+ = Hayess TeSulis Of 2 .1as oat tals enone aloes ee ciseee see 23, 26
Marpyo. ch Mipuel*- Ioetter from. = [23/2 25. eee ee Se. ok 122
ABcistantisnn the Institutio mss cvs e ato srwre tate totaotateratolcter stooee seta arseee Uae cer OMG 2 dey tA:
Astronomical results of Hayes’s Arctic observations .......-2...--...------------- 28
Aurora Borealis, or polar light ; its phenomena and laws, by Prof. E. Loomis ------. 208
Australia. Donation from mining department of ......-.-.---.------------------ 124
Bache, A. D. . Discussion of magnetic and meteorological observations at Girard College. 23, 23
Baird, Prof. S. F., appointed first assistant, and duties..........--.---..---.------ ae
Rewer, of American: bitds:....5 522-1 sa5 seeeyoeeteeea eae slot eeiecnictoone 24,63
i HSies Ok CXCRAN UES) 6.5 oe cao ne aaa = eee eee aiein o/c ama putes 75
Services rendered telegraph company by..---..----- ---. ----:---- ------ 61
Barmard, Generali. Gy Hulocy,on’ General Potten. = 22 oaj-- 22-2 <= so ese ee ae 137
Banenlcn eam anen, derectorpresenteds by, \-ceeeieieeSelee =r dene ele meee == 19
BECO ues ti Ol SOt ASO Me saee at toe alae ooo cn seimcle Be see ee aoe 2 be eee 107, 119, 121
Berondt: Dr iH,- Explorations by 23s: s<'v.2s2t5 25 ieee eee le '-- 62, 129, 130
Temes WWolGs. | Wodies Oin OI Soy peo co py o bes Goch oso sce cco sO eE CR. BESy CUSESE 24, 40
Birds, review of American; by Prof. ‘S. PF.) Baird) i222 22222 onsees seen ee =~ ~2- = 24, 40, 65
Review lor classcotsbyaluilljeboreasss essai seaacleoeeectsee sec seem 434
Bison, specimens of, wanted by museum of Bern .-..-...-.---------------------- 128
Blainville, Ducrotay de. Memoir of, by M. Flourens..--..-.-.------------------ 175
Bond, Geo. P. Comparison of instruments by --. -------...---------------------- 29
Bossange, Gustave, agent for exchanges at Paris ...--.---.---------------------- 74,76
Brainard, R.-C. Notice relative to Wynn estate. .-.. .... .... .------------------- 115
Brazil, “Donations tom) == 245 scesseaaecssstacssspeonece ses cece oem ceclones cece 127, 128
Brazilian Natural History Museum. Letter from ..-.-..... mandesaU COORD O65 2608 128
Bremen. Donations from ..----------- eee eeaorassode boon peSade pace Se boee 2ecc 132
Scientific society formed in .......-.- Sp aan Meee eS ouEA seas = neces 132
Peyrer, et NL OMMOOO RY Jee ae 38 25S a ca5 cada ncese css eassece se ROIS SBIGC CE 60, 63
Brivshimeteorolorical’ system, .<</<-< -22- <00-oqennscceesecwese he onisnesescedscnnn 54, 56
Bring Museums. duetterirom ss esoess coecesenlececieecu es oe daoasBososebowsascetsc 133
490 INDEX.
PAGE.
Brace;'Sir-Prederie:’ Letter from: sssscseescoose setae eee Se eee. 129
Bryant,' Dr... Researches-of ics.cseeccsecessckctcsex ee. DIVO EU Met ROS 63
Building. . Description of x2. css cents gece dn sea esse oes Belle ee Osseo eee. 14
Expenditures from January, 1865, to April, 1866 --.-.--.2--...-.....- 113
Reconstruction of-.t < 22s 2c ccn ee eee. eS el eee EL See lll
Report Of. commMittee cracecemecces cess tome e eee So eee cee ee 111
Building of the Institution may be used by government.....-.-...-.--.----.------ 22
Bulkley, Colonel). Macilities/attorded. by, -<--- 4-2-2524 -se= aaa =a eee 61
Banlamgui, Dont. 0. Letter from... 2... -22-s0ene manic aaeme sme cine fate eee 128
Canada. , Meteorological'system, of... .-.2..2-2/5-besetes ape asia eee 53, 132
@apitol” (Researches on ventilation) of. - ss -sccesss see see ettee a ae eee 67
Canleton, General J... Wetter trom... 2... naere yea e ea eee eee ware eee 124
Carmiel, Mr. Explorations Dy, = --<--0<<0<60<s'onciesdn.nsah taehe ae Se ecpoce nes 62
Carpenter, P. PE... Work on.shells....<.-22.2 Tepe ludumoes oe pusnand 5 ween see te 40, 64
@agsin, Jno: , Researches ofe. 2.6 a4 05 occoce sk eshese Ue ab Soe eeee os eee ae es 63
Catalogue of Transactions in Smithsonian library -..--. --...--- 222+ +2. ---- eee nee 24
Catiin’s Indian portraits. <<< <<: <eeso22--ehe se eee- seen eases Act eee 17
Chalk discovered in. Colorado... sss esa sameece - gas debduyesd bead doioae 125
Chase, Chief JusticeS. P., acts as Regent...-<<--so¢cua2ssessfar aciseaaeeee- 118, 119, 120
Letter,t0,Conpress -.-- =. <2- co-ansem secene= nae ae aeeeaie eee aoe 4
Opinion relative to interest on Smithsonian fund.....-----....--.---- 116, 117
Chemical-analysisvaskedof Institution: 12.2 45225..s55 sesso scccsaco = =~ ste e 69
@hicaro Academy, of Sciences: ssagsssssosoes= sole= > joerc seele eae ae Seeeaae eae 43, 61, 62
Cim:; Geolopical observations imi. 6.) <7. < oo sa= ooeteieewale ne eaenie ee = ae 36
Chossat, Dr. Report on transactions of Geneva Society..--..---..----.---------- 189
Cluss;/ Adolph, appointed architect, - -<-- .. 3.5. - <-nemoceieno == eeh ss ae aes 19,111
COaSHBUIVey .< sass e250, <a15)5/ dacmlgeqesiniciiow ayane aadesias sanieeaa tere eeees 23, 26, 27, 30
Collaborators of the Institution in Natural History, &c-.---..----.---..--.-------- 64,74
Celtéctions.,. Object: of Smithsonian j_.....-4.3.. tees cn4i sees wane ee eee eines 59, 60
Collections.of Naturaliistorysreceiveds.+os-/saeen-tas= = o=--= saa e eee ee 61, 62, 84
Colleges. furnishing. meteorological registersi.. . 20. ccicwceseweseeeces aren ccanas sees 100
Collins, T. K.. Printing. executed ‘by... seer Sa. Be ae eee 45
Columbia College, N..¥..- Minerals referred. to-- ccc cts 265 5oci0 1c Saclensldida 2s 64
Conchology., List of Smithsonian publications on ....2-...-----2----see--eeeeee 40
Congress, act of, to transfer custody of Smithsonian library to Library of Congress. -.70, 120
Acisiof, relative: to methic:systems-- a2. cassse eee anaaaas see eee eye ee 462
Appropriation. should be. made Dy. 4.1.5 12 noo. oe Rbcitadn nim eee ae 19, 22
Legislation by, necessary to use residuary legacy -.----------- 21, 109, 110, 119
Should establish meteorological system ...--. .-..---- +--+ 2-2-2 +2200 57
Connolly;;Gov. -H.. . Account. of meteoritest622e eo sete seen soe eee eee eee 124
Conrad: TwAs~ -Letter-from:sss<sassecessshe cscs see See ee ee ee 125
Contributions-to knowledge -s.6csssaccssxeaddces vanasencast esd Reel k coe tos 23, 24
Cope, Dr. -E. -- Researches ‘on reptiles $2. sass usc oe ee Seen 63
Correspondence. Extent of loss of ...-.-..--.--.- SP och oct Gece ne Cecocc ot Sse ons: 18
Bxtracts from: . ss20c0ssaasesesele abe Le Seeeee 20. Cees Se aa 122
Correspondence of assistants must be through Secretary...-.-..----.-------------- 72
Cones; Dr. E.-; Explorations by? :ss2+'ss:2s2sasecensce cee ee seen aos eee 60
Craig, Dr.-B.: F.» Laboratory in charge: of j2225 52252 oe eaten eee ee 74
Cuming, Hugh. Identification of shells by.------ asc 02 ee SS eae ae geo 65
Cunard, Sir E. Shells transported free by.-----.--- Se eeeerl. oe seem al eros 64
Davis} Dr: EA” “Error pointed out by 22 ioeaccsscasssee cos ole eee aaa ee 48
Davis, Hon- Garret, ‘dete as Repent: =. 63.5 slo ssst ss fasees ececccleesuercerese 115, 116, 118
Deaths of meiecrold sical 'observersess 22S SS IIIS ses sess cee at eeeeecaeaeeceeeee 100
INDEX. 491
PAGE.
Delafield, General Richard, acts as Regent......-....-2+. ese. 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121
Plane for building by-c-sssssseuesseeneer tives Sestemepwwwitss dd. 5s) 19, 118
Reportof Buildinp: Committees aso is: onc aces coe voce ceceantteweed. 111
Report: of Executive! @ommitiee os . Fed. oeerctaebseed eceesdie cet... 107
Department of Instruction, Canada. Letter from...........--cescccccecceccece-- 132
Desor, E., on Palafittes, or Lacustrian Constructions. ........ 2... 2-2-2. eee onee 346
Perectordor.watchmen 5.5 224.325 sheumnereseen vel. bout cull ete oben ads 3g. 19
Peennbuuowand se of-specimiens <..22...65. 20. ote Gels ahi Libel. 63, 85
Donations to museum in 1865.......--. 22.2... pa lescaetiee cetacean eee 86
Donnelly, Hon. Jenatius; . Letter referred. by-=-<=....-.-ss ssedeie lee tedocces Ue 125
Douglas, Judge S.-A. -- Resolution by: «<<.0i sss scores ce. LU a, 72
Draper, Dr:-Henry:~-Silvered-glass-teleseope = <5 s<5 25-000. 8 hes. cat ob 23
PmnlirksSeeicty: ++ Prizes- offered by... ia vss ecccveeece ws ee ede. 460
Electric phenomenon. Account of remarkable... 2... .cs..0 sense eee ee eee ccee wees 123
Bieciro-physiology..-Lectures by Matteucci... c2.-.eceuis cee so. sees. 20! 291
beeployés-ef the Institution: ..25 -2-<50..5. 3805105 MRE Ot ssw eas 71, 72,73
Engineer department. Meteorological system of..... 2.2222 cesses ces ees cone eeeees 52
Entomological Society of Philadelphia. Insects sent to ........---...2..--.-.---- 64
Entomology. Smithsonian publications on...... 2.22.2 .22c02 sees e cece ee nee ene 43
Padex Institute: Synopsis Of senls|..22...4-.sacccccos mace e=beeees eb feeeck oes 63
Hiapyjie-0t .- . Meteorelagical Jaburse-c2tsseiiees sme pesabinees Ses tites seis iss. 55
PSiMTALeS Ol ANC NMECH mca ae eee = asinine ao asa alee celne cee eeentae earch anor aoe eae 114
Ethnology. Smithsonian investigations ..... 2.2.22... ccejesccee scence scones 23, 45, 47, 50
PB ONO a 6s Liens oon sindem vw ainent sess =ssnenncness cane teebebad seced soamee see 135
Eulogy on Gen. Jos. G. Totten, by General J. G. Barnard.........-..-...-------- 137
inwansy; Governor John. etter. from.sss.5 522532 ca0.6s etIEEE Data atin deb 122
PMCUAR GEES PACCOUNE: Of saan coarse se onsen 555 Sis csomccoedtueed ce sens scares Bes 69,75
Pxpenditures:during@1S6S) Ses osc 5555 5 UM. ose ease ee ee ele eee ete els eR SEES 107
Expenditures.on building for 1865. and: 1866... .--. -2.. sieges feel S2 Jas. J cee 113
imp GUEMe Mis: Alt SLA DOTEL OLY: <= aaa waa sin soe aia mainin cic oe mee elem sis sie Se msste Tee 67
BREE HOTA] OS egete ety alain a alas ila elnfnlajnaeiaic = Siniai inal oie aioe en eerie ae ee ee 60, 129, 130
Express lines.. Transportation facilities rendered ..........--2------------- 22-0 69
Hains Worth, HON Is.k.,.8Cts AS, me Cent, ose acemccine a eeeeeee s - ch-oe 115, 116, 117, 119
ineuner, Capninin,, desth.ot 502-2... 5... 423 sees Saree as 2 eel ee 60
Peeecdien, WW alba,acis asepent: 2525520 eslcisnatnice ate wasemiadaesiiect).ct see mae 116, 117
Ee ICOR nee SIAC) Olsen a ctencita onan oso nn pan = aa — ea eeiene ae aes gel eRe 20, 107
Po dtethenmsituinon. es ACCOUnt Of <<< <<< .0.<ctee ao ela eee eee eset = 14,111
PS chert Ce aici OG dLOM) sass ese. sasnnseee sae et water eee eeeeasiese ee Spee 128
Puaroy, Admiral. ..Meteorological system of-s2s.ijc5,0 seSeaent sc uelee ieee 2... 54,56
Fladgate, Clarke and Finch. Services rendered by --..-...-..-.---------<--.---- 21,109
Piupel, Dr, F- Agent for exchange at Leipsi¢ ..--......-- s2.. saeemamees 3--- 5-25 74,76
em Gi) PUM OS OE tee es een sass say aaeasaesenes asee Steeda =-eeee 72
Foreign institutions in correspondence with Smithsonian Institution..........------ 89
]P PaUTaKNS) 2 SSeS Pee a eo Rec onecbee BoC eee enor Gans coc- técodecGoeepe- sei 139, 143
Hassiltroms©oloradosent. by Govyermor Byang. ...2. .s-<.<s-sss-6> sees <is=seear -o- 122
Hosen, Hon ua S:, Acts as) Welentayassacae> Meson teae snemiasecvieiwene 25-5 115, 116, 119
Hyance. _Meteorolopical system of, -.----------- enon en gn eae eae no nens 54, 56
Paanklin, Benjamin, on passage of storms. .... -. 5 ~seceme occcas cen tasie--cb> sh~5 55
French system of weights and measures. ..---- ------ ecceee -a0 5 won ene wens wens 462
Rigsds SmMlunson. eACCOUM Ole ac cece ooo o seine ee iea eae sonoma aetaele ieee 20, 107
Gamicld, Hon. J. Aq) aCtsias eCONt cece elonwcee se eniane sain ee ascii 115, 116, 118, 120
Geological observations in China and Japan, by Pumpelly ......-....------------- 36
Geological Survey of Canada. Shells sent to....-... -22. seeeee ones cones cone enee 66
492 | INDEX.
PAGE
Gibbs; George: )\General alphabet sscsc0es- oo --eseiaeittiees semis aie stebiiot <sicasetee. 46
Udithnolopical insinctiong.. .2< on. ecmlsnasmnsis-se eb bees eee See 23, 47
= Services to Smithsonian Institution: -o5- tp osares-em =e nee soeeeaeee cere 47
(letter from; ‘relative to Navajo indians 22-223. 2. sae cee 126
Report. on Knipe’s: Nootke vocabulany-=-— -s--eee- == ae aee seen 39
Gall; Dr: ‘Theo: > Duties ols. .2 5 sc0<. siaaaisea=eeae apne eee arc a oe ne 73
Natural History researches of -.----.-..--- Sects seis bce ep ara aie 63
2 Eranslation or review, OfubInds| bygs-s_ sss eee e aes ee eee 434
Given: (Hons Weel “Wetter tromn. <s:-<ic.-=scis\ciemane anaes ed saci sesh s hehe 123
Gold; saletof torthellmstitution =. - 45 osc eee eee eee Bee ieee eee ee eee 109, 118
Gould; Dr. BotAse Researches: Diyseocte sas a saiaiol acre tote eae oe ae oie oe 48
Gray, Dr.Asa;) Plants- referred t0=.2<< eae semen rac tee ae ee eee eee Se oe 64
Grayson, :Cols A.J. Exploration by soon ssssss soso es eae oe enone ee ae eee 61
Great Britam: ~~ Meteorolegical:systent 0f: 22 “22a See ee eee 54, 56
Hale Hone'Charles:* Letter trom-.: +24 2244te se eeee eee tee ee ee 124
Blardisty> Ws ta: heiter‘communicated by sos. e eee eee eee ees lee
Hare; Drs Roberts: Apparatus -of..0222+.24 conspire ee eer ae Ee 18
Meéteorolopical labors\<cccje~ pees name tea ieee teen ee ener ee ree 5d
Harvard Observatory +) Observations ata --2o- mm. soe oe eee eee ee eee se es)
Hayes; DrvIsaacd.. “Anctic.observations by 126721 2223) se ee osee cee eee. oo eeoee 23, 26
Hayden, Dr. F. V. Palzeontology of the Upper Missouri. ..-. ....---..22--2.2-2-- 23
Henry, erof.soseph-.. Annuallkeport tor 18652... ce eee setae see eee eeeeee 13
ATIpOIN ted ONY COMMILEO nsec. ince see aber eee erieaee eee eee 118
Report presented 10 Bead eee ocr semen asec esas eee cee 118
Letter from, to Secretary of the Treasury .--..--.- reins vente cece ace 117
Dhetterto Congress. <ccn on care ace hee eee eee eee ee 3,4
Report of. building, Committee... .--.--ssee> seen eee = ees aes 111
Researches) on) ventilation by eeeee=neeaeeleeee aces eee ae ee 638
(Daren AEN Soa Sos pospag cod deces 2 scosSg oe co 26 anoo see caddneodse 69
Pbindeks: Wane -sluetterntiroms— 22s tise con sow cases sine aie nee ee ene eee 134
Ebtz “Dr. pExploration! by: - = --\criscr seem eeceeeetrsicecss ceeeea ae sccm eee ee 60
Hodgins, J. George. - Meteorological system of Canada...........-.--.-.----- ---.53, 132
Holland. (Meteorological system of - oo 2 ses n= ee eee eesiniee seen aoa ae 54
Monorarymembers-ofthe Institution... 2225.2. - sss eoeeleee aoe ase oe eee 6
Hndsonis, Bay-Company, — Explorations! bye =---ttaeees|-e> oselee ale eee eee ee ae 60, 61
ivdropiinae: researches upon; by; We Simpson == -aisc esis see eee ne ee eee eee 24, 42
““Tbis,°” remarks of, relative to Baird's review, of birds==--2..------se+-- eee sees 4]
Miarrepni; Governor... Exploration by - <2 -<- <--~ enero e cess anes eee ae 62
Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna. Prizes offered by -----.-...------.----- 450
Imperial Society of Science, &c., of Lille. Prizes offered byeteses eCSs Soccer 453
Indian Meteorological system! of-)22 22-2 oo. 5 oops eerie ee aa eae eee eae 56
Indians/of Hindson’s' Bay termaitory... Account Ofs— 2 32 -o-eissianoe sate ee eeeiseiee is ae 135
Indianinacessbhysical characters;ot 22\0 see | sce see eiesciele ste see eae eee 23
Indian: yocabulamesand-grammars ..0, d2-crwos done Satstseee o- - ce meee Ree soseeee 38, 3
Insects placed in charge of Entomological Society of Philadelphia -.--....----.-.-- 64
iagecis. Smithsonian publicationsion ....5 «cs-5 ssceuempaeoeseses sess ciesis sae 43
Interestvon Smithson@und: --=\ senso seme esse ae ee 20, 107, 108, 117, 118
Krisarri; ;Senor:+- Letters: (nom : 2 ses-5e0cececes See e eo eee eee 129, 130
Torin Dries 2 Ste OntO ttOMs 2 se.cc 5 Sica cine ve ceeeeee toes aa 2 ea 67
Maly.) Meteorological:system.of......~~sisesic cc scene Oeee ee Saleen ed sees See oot 54, 56
Japan. )- Geological observations in. 20624 ..23 vccancceecsnel ope Seen ere asics 36
Jeurnal-of Board. .of- Regents... ...sts<csckecncqeeas seen ee leeee boon eee ee 115
Kane, E. K... Arcti¢-expedition.s s2<..<cd a sarccanctepeeeet eee eae teas eee 27, 28, 30
Kennicott,; Robert. - Explorations by: 2223... Sas ssec PS. SEs Se eee 61
INDEX. 493
PAGE.
Knipe, Rev. C. Nootka Sound vocabulary and grammar. .... 2.02.2. cee eeee noes 38
MRR EOL ALOR + WNOFK: ONO Sites nrowee row rnoddewatein nates dea ea Me ese 67
. Lacustrian constructions. ...Account.of,- by Desor .. 2... dsceee conc chee sees cee cone 346
BOA PUAEO.-~-RASCAEGAES. ODvoererrsnsr renew a icioon CASO eal SAME IEEE Meh oo awe 46
PAHS 710m GRAS, wcll XPLOTAHLODS MDF sid aia od ma Baers uae Nae, SU eo ole ee ie ctie 62
ELEN Ge, GeO Nieman esealchessOf.acaansccacisenceslsacadaysnssent eee ose dank 63
eS S88 ~ON-UNIONIA Dix crcrcerrnneicarasccrsdassccee see ee ee. 40
Meconte, Dr. Ji. Ons Coleopterassassinsiaaoeceadectes. Sk See RE 43
MEETICT Ce LOS ween kK CSCALCNES, DY a a crnciaan ari joh gain ante cheese ro SSR ates ee Be ee 69
Leidy, Joseph. Cretaceous reptiles of United States-.....-.-.--...-.-2.-2-------- 25
BRB i ODN aa asa pecans sainianewis sin te a Sa a ae ok 122
Weverrier.. - Meteorological system, 0f ....---.--,.<s<-<en--=-)-n=seees eee ue Soh ote 54, 56
PRP ALEYS Ol CON ITCSS 6 oa 5 asa = aa amsaena,aefaeeia sailatatae sacar eS oa a tS ee 70
Library, Smithsonian—Transfer to Library of Congress ......-...-----.----- 116, 117, 120
(Ad GIGOTIS Oj ae a sehen eine ewe aie Ace See eres oe 79, 122, 124, 127, 128, 132
Catalogue of --... sara poian ios)<\ sam ais pio olka peated savers .—y cece = hy 1 70
SEYSMBIOT: OF sate fons Paiste Sie SE i Soe Reread Sacget ls 67, 70, 116, 117, 120
Pee hi-NOUSS BORTA HER crepe ea bene Mes ebe ker che kAerene eee oso ee se aS 164, 171
Pailjenoro, “Prof. W. - Jheview: of class .of. birds :j)245<eestaws sects Josasss ened 434
Lisboa, M. M. . Thanks. due for collections and letter........-....-.-.--.--------- 62, 127
Bast of addresses, of foreion institutions: a4. sass )Jaelg Scesetemeveiecs sou. Jdbae eae 89
oomis;-Prof.. Elias: on-Aurora Borealis.......ceee 225s seat eee oe oe eee 208
MPOSOy Cr Pe 2S Tether fran a6 mk ieee se on hone bee ees SRO AN NL IE 2 Se 128
pelt, Wr: -; Meteorological -system.of-..- <1. SSS eae eee ee SU Se 52
fubbock s.ethrolopical. article ‘corrected! s2w2 5.280 SLE ee ee 2: 48
Mactunlane oly hs .sCollections front-v.~.c occ doce Ree sence ae eee eee oe 61
Merers ish Governor. .Collectionsstromc-ces costa eee eae e ee ee ne eeee eee 61
ene cua iscassion,/ Oy sb TOt, “Bache... ea cce He eee eee See ea See Sone 23
Mapnetic results of Hayes’s.Arctic-observations ......./...2200. do005- 0se5- eke 3
akah Indians. -.J. G. Swan's paper on... s<. 22-2 -t esse eestor ee) ee 39
Matteucci, Prof. C.. Lecture on electro-physiology....-..-.----.---------2-----s- 291
Meteorological: system, ofestiee—. st seew ee see eemet eee oes Sneha eae ae 54
MAUL YG Miehin etcorolopicalisystem Of. oc - wees eeree oe eae eee sec os eee eee 53
Pico hniock, Cir Es 1. - Aretie expedition ~....2it ase sees soe eee sents eee 28
WreCulloch; 4. letter to, relative-tointerest-..- =~ os coe nee ae cee ce eon cetaceans 117
JCI DS ey Sat ST aes | ATS oy 6 Oc) 00 ee eS doe LT ee ee ep 125
Meade, ‘Gen: .G, G. - Meteorological system of !-2 72/22 322-22 22s ge, 22 ek 52
Pressures; <-ablesrOk ues 253-5233 2 bbs pae7ss ch cisdeeee coememocce cease soe 462
Meek, F. B..-Palzxontolosy of Upper’ Missouri-..<2 2222-22. S202. 22 esl se 22 ee 23
MMemberser ofccto o1-the Institution sasoce toe tos Soe sae Seen eee eee ee eee eee 6
Meteorites: -Accountsofictee kee ws eet eee eete Sets oe eee ee Le 67, 124
Mereorite.-- Account of Bwit-Ainsa -.. 3. Sc o2 eS SES ee 67
Metcorolorieal discussion, “by Prof. Bache <=.=2+'..=s. sss eee ees. 22 23
Meteorological observations. Character and value of ......-.-.---.---.-.-------- 5
F Systems"of- 2s 4esee ees ee ee SAR Yr ol eS 52, 92, 132
Meteorological material contributed during 1865...-.. .... 2.222... 2--2 02-2 eee oe 101
Meteorological results of Hayes’s Arctic observations.........---..-- sr eoscoe oos6 33
miereuralogical stations;and.Observers .s.ccc< sce cc ecdesteuene U558 S05.) [eee 92
Mrereorology,.. -LmapOrian Ce, Oli! secicmiecievecmisisnies + eros See ae ee ate eens oe ene eee OOS
Great fact relatimesto;iestablished-. o-. --eeeee een scisoaa soeemeee eee 55
Wolesranphiused for <2. o< cis siclnis sts =o eleanor See Us eee ye tee Ek 56, 57
Smithsonian) researches, 1 «..-cceienerneancee ceece sees one sees wee 50
Mote system of weiehts andl moasures..-.- <<< -<--<scess-=ssteeciess-ctespecceos ploe
Mexican. Society of Geography and Statistics. Letter from....-..--.-.---- ae aehe renee
494 INDEX.
PAGE,
Miani, Dr. Map of explorations of river Nile....-....... sentlnemmalinc te = mop aeees 124
Military Academy sata en erieeiete coe ree mere kee nel rast an ee aeee tee ee eee 140
Minerals sentsto Columbia College; Now os2he42 ses soceee ees. ce eee eee 64
Mining. department, ‘Australias ~Letter frontj22-2- =)-<eececenm-siciseciemeern es ee 124
Miscellaneous: COMCCHONS 2 Ie ele etiam nl el aie eset mie clea tale ete ede te ait ae 39
Molina s'Senor-Lowiss etters tromiacncccccrce Ure ce eee Meare e So ei etcle eee 430, 131
Mongolia. “Geolopicalvebsetvations wd 2. 5. os nc.c meciene ge eer ano sae eee eee 36
Muller,¥. “Agent for exchanges ‘at Amsterdam —<..25. 22-2 -usoeoaeeeass. senate 74, 76
Miuseund:s-sC ondition Oitecsecrssee rose ee eee eee ere oe ee EE ee ee 66, 84
Congress should establish 425-5 ai eee 67
WaOnation Stormo ee eee ee coe ee ee ee 86, 122, 127, 128
Objettufes scoters con eS ee ee 59, 60
Museumiof citys of-Bem =abetter trom jac cece eee eee ee eee eee 128
Museum of Comparative Zoology. Shells presented to-..---.. SdsbosaanescoocooSc 66
Myriapoda, by-Dr.-H.-C.-Wio0d;- fr cower Soo se LE EE Coon 43
National«A.cademy-of Sciences +s... -.eeee nie HR eee... 36, 48, 137
National museum should be established by government ..-.--.-..--.---+---------- 67
Natural. History... References respecting J... -.'-ls-= os ooecd ede cen bles cab adeeaen ee 64
Transactions:of Geneva > Society.-nn- tw nner oeewieieeinle = eat ood 189, 200
Nayajo Indians: -=Account.of <2: .zcoeee. Beek eet eet ee eee 125
Neptune, investigation of the orbit of, by Prof. Newcomb....--.------------------ 23, 24
Newcomb, Simon. Investigation of the orbit of Neptune ...--..-2--------------- 23, 24
Newton, Prof. H. A. Tables of weights and measures..--..-.-.--------------+--- 462
New York State Cabinet of Natural History. Shells sent to.......-.---.---------- 66
New York... Meteorological-system-of--..-~~=\.<'<~'cajeoneamte aeee eaaecde aoe eee eee 52
Nootka Sound language, vocabulary, and grammar -.-.....------------ +--+ eee eee 33
Observatory...Washinoton <1 <cnaLcnenniece mee Seame ene tie PoE ae eee eee 24, 25
Ofticersvor. the Institution: <ccccnectnisne Gos e ce eee eee ae ee 5,71
Wdlogy.. . Brewer, ON. <.cc.ccassan snkaceuse cee ae Oats Cente ee Caan sees 60, 63
WEdnance.,..PMesNy. hoc cow si ains Keene nee OEE ne Sate = aes ee 157
Ornithology. Smithsonian publications on...-....------------------ J qpb aes SUE 24, 40
Osteopraphy... . Blainyalle’s researches....<-2<-...<mee0osne0seceateerseeneene eae 186
Owen; Rich... Juetter, from:....2.2ee sesece cae oce seas socee soc eece See ee aoe 134
Ralzcontology,; , Blainville’s researches.--ssseee-eaasa-- see ne eee ee ae eae eee 182
Palafittes, or lacustrian constructions, by E. Desor..--..-.----------- -----+ eee - 346
manizzi,-A.... Wettertrom...22essd< odo sock macs ceecnecs see ee eee 133
Patterson, Hon. J. W., acts.as Regent. ...-.< ..<<-0-.-se0 sseacs 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121
Patton, Jos. H. Attorney relative to Wynn estate. ..--.- .2-. 2-2. ---ceenennes -20- 117
Peabody, George. .- Services rendered .by ss sec..--eewe oeccee See cek eee eoeee cae ee 21, 109
Peirce, Prof. Benj. Researches relative to planet Neptune..--...----------------- 25
Pennsylvania. . Meteorological system of [252222228 Se et ce- co sae seie ate me arte 52
Personnelvofmhe Institutions. eeeses cates dent es aioe iteie els eee ee ne nee ee eae 71
Petitots Reverb. etter fromssccac dccces cess + lb osssete eee ee eee ace 135
Philolovicalvinstructions - s2sssssc, 23s 2sadsacdeqssmamnostsecs essscereeeee ene. ae 23
Physicalicharacteristies of- soldiers ss.s75 Ho5see eben ete a~ < eee eee seas 47
Physics ; transactions of Geneva Society - -:2=<:<se«0s-ses+ss-eeeseo-se-----boee 189, 200
Physiology,. clectro®Lectures.on, by: Matteucci: = 222sst 525005 sbes-eseres teen ase 291
Plantamour, Dr. Report on transactions of Geneva Society. ..-.---.-.---.-------- 200
Plants sent "to Dis: “Lortey. and Gtay-222-22cc2cssnescere ed b= ese oeeee = eee 64
Piateau, J. Researches on figures of equilibrium of a liquid mass -...--..--.------ 409
Pontifical Academy of the Nuovi Lincei. Prizes offered by -.----..-----.--------. 450
Powell; Com."L..M. : ‘Researches: by. ce <cccure een te eee wien eae nae eer snes 69
Priestley.” “Apparatus of iso estas Ios late see Cea ae Lee Se Ree ee ee 18
Prime; ‘Temple. ‘Om Corbiculadss? 2. 220055 Lo sscecs tees eon een c ane Seem ae aieeiaate 40
INDEX. 495
PAGE.
Bante of the Institution. .. 022. sn 2cceeescasies qaigtstonne ee ee ae See 22, 24, 45
Pari ZOr GM estiGUs| Ol SCENIC SOCLCLIOS = << 25 an aeee ee seisiaun me aetbee eaise) sates ae se eA a a
BPOPTHIRMO OF OFPaNIZALION 5. <<. = <c<re oaaiacn ce Ye sthecels eka ep aiibeertin Sie cal Giese 7
uiblications of the Institution during 1865... <2 ...0-2-- 39-2 ppemerepccmine=ie-sc-er 22
Pumpelly, Raphael. Geological observations in China, Japan, and Mongolia, by... 36
Quartermaster General. Temporary roof constructed by.-...-----.--------------- 113
ailroadlines.. ‘Transportation facilities rendered ...<< <0... e0-njs2-2s ese 242-52 69
Bamnoipo, VV. b. Accounts examined DY <q <p m4 oe pas oem ein spe ees 110
Ban, Chas. Examination of ancient mounds by ........----- ----ne saeside ona -n0- 49
BCE MeRO TINY NEON a2) ced \oiuaine alsin s Senha nase ys ae ee site aa See eee 107
Bragadewac. Meteorological labors ..- << 2.0 -<0eec0 en ccaeennnsnbens d= 55
DCE Or TMG INS UU ON << a ca. i eo sa0 ~ a cena Heee ee ceiciels soa neicoes eae peh eens See 5, 115
megents. Journal of Board, January 17, 1866. ----. 00. 0c os oeaeiene njnisie Jase 115
Journal of Board, Hebruaryy dy, L6G q 4 cei an aie palm masini s ace ain) Sohe Spee 115
Jourmaliot Board) Rebruany) 23, 1660". ale natea mies ee ee ee ae 116
ourmalvof board. Manchy 24. TOGO nsec erase tee eres eee eens as eee are 118
Journal of Board, April 28-51 S86Gss-=- 0-6 ba seeteiseers <t- beeaaeieeseees 119
Regents of University of State of New York. Resolutions by-.-....---.---.------ 125
eeu CC ONOUES Ole ee oe hoe RSS aoa ome ion ahaa as 3
Repost ors ull dimes oMMi thee ona. ocie o)<ecieicts aie eee a niags tae alain ain pees 111
nepert oft xecutive Committee tor eGo) oo. smner anh Jee eotene as omens malas eee 107
Report of the Society of Physics and Natural History of Geneva, from July, 1863, to
Linings wlio Ea Oya GOS EASA Seabee bee Cea r cord: cos cose toa See oso CBee mee 189
Report of the Society of Physics and Natural History of Geneva, from July, 1864, to
une sso5, by, Planiamour - ono oes eee cine oni ea eels cise oe <= eee 200
Reptiles of United States—Cretaceous. Work on, by Dr. Leidy.-....-..-.---.---- 23
Mesearcnes in Netutal PIStOly ys oc sciseee pecs ececenscopne cme Selsesess ase see 63
ieemencon American birds, bye yor. ..F. Baitd, -- oe cerecceemee eer baseline 24, 40, 63
emo nay ieiclass Onbirds; Joy: Maul CbDOLe mc cc ema mamsemeecic~neniss «sasiscel + = 434
ney Melddwiey. Ghasse, Account of Nayealo Undianse oa. -=ecemeeeismcnin cee eios eee 125
FvoOeeS, Vi). appoimted.chiet.clerk, and. duties) > 22-222 2se--ls-sose 1as> -~-5 sel vp)
BEE Stirs © Orem SAIC OP. COM wc) eins civ cicisaicns cou acmites Seeiem at celacioniva «ach tee 109, 118
ee oie WO teLSeOMe et natn aes sisi easervenswcces cee eeee eee eso. ~ceeees 132
Royal Danish Society of Sciences. Prizes offered....-----..--.---.-------- -=--0 449
Royal Scientific and Literary Institute of Lombardy. Prizes offered by.-.---.------ 451
Emissineee lCLeorolomicalusysiem Ol- <. 4 ssc secece essa acislainic syritelels = aliens smite 54
Sabine, General. Observations by....----.------------ Ee eV «f=. wins erage 30
PATAhy, COMMISSION wiveSEALCHES, Dyi « «tea eietmelee (ae a ieee ates ae ie = 48
Sartorius, Dr. PXPlOMHMOD DY. ~ass<> ss ns esse se 2s E-Dote Eee yaeeeer o- SAiacioe bac 62
ScCienLiiG ilutis—MoOwadeduced: ease sa salsa ae a arate eles etal tarieieniniolela lems = alee = 27
School of Mines, New York. Minerals referred to ...---.-----------.-2---------- 64
Schott, Chas. A. Discussion of Hayes’s Arctic observations .....----..----------- 23, 26
Benow-eir. Arthur... Wixploraton by... -..<< cca cerercocesisiteessio=m>-s-2--1sme= 62
MEH - COMMU CIENCOSS eae e ee Re ee ee een eee a una ems ste seissieinee seee 139, 143
Recretanyommednstitnwon., “cowersjand duties, . .-2. ---ace\sese “ee oleae = 71
Ee ee oe oo oon sa 4522s eR eMO REE aoc ore mes-os 249
SHED Oo Gina oo on oaetee be CRB ERRAE ESE BBO eCch se cuore seeynoe soe BUSS Sha Sec 276
Shakspeare. Meteorological quotation. .........---.------ ---- --- 222 eee eee eee eee 55
Beclisn Curgoniora Work: Of tts 552-5 2.252)05- soewasieas- senn <2 ane ann eee 64
IDFEnalomUNON ON a5 Sage Bese Soe Oba Sac a ero one soe Eanoobeee sae. 405 66
Smithsonian publications OM: =. 226/06 =< a 2-2 ws soon oe ene aie J 24, 40, 64
Thanks for, from Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences --.-.--.---- 122
Smithson, residuary legacy of. ......-.--------2 02-220 ---- 0+ eee eee eee 21, 109, 118, 119
Smyth, R. Brough. Letter from. .--..--22. 220. 2200 oes cow w ne scene cece es caceee 124
496 INDEX.
PAGE.
Sontacy Amp.) KOUSErvations DY lvesa scenes sce cee ieeewie ceteris eet en hale erenes 29
Npottord; A R, relative to Ldbrary of Conpress=<----per.--= c= ae see oeeloee sea eee 70
SHemmlles 74s, Wag benel opines 55 S565 ocioeoS cos sou soon ceSr Sosods Saesee bdSoHesces cues 18
Siantony By) Mi iSecretany, of Wane meAtdirendered pye-eea sacl eee eet eee eee 113
State stacks.” WIspositton Ol. sae oe lem eae oma ieiinniae elie le aol 119, 121
1a hatyad bostrlinltOese Sone po oeee S565 Sooeas SaSGoeuuEe Hees Sogo cacese 107, 120
Steamer lines. Transportation facilities rendered .-..........----.----------- cue 69
Stereotype plates deposited in Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences..-..--..--- 45
Sumpson, DrWim. dtesearches upon hydrobimess == cesses eeee sae eee eeeee 24, 42, 43
Stimpson’, Wi, on miarine!shells east coast .--s--5 ee oases eee ee eee eee 40
Stocks; State. Aiction‘of Beard relative: to) 2252 -ce--eenae es eee eee eens 119, 120
Storms passage or trom westitO east. saase a= -eoseel ee eee een a a eee 55
StudereBs Wetter from tess ode Jose an actence ease eee meses seep 128
Sully.(General.)Explorationiby ‘yo2c\.s2= esse ceeaisec Seles eee ee sen ae ee 60
Sureeon" General. ~ Moteorolosical system of: <22222 2 (22 2 ace ee o-oo ee eee cee 52
Swans J. G:;00 Makahdindians 552 oss. os ees secciacemine ecco eee eee eee eee 39
Tables of metric system of weights and measures= -5---. 222 «ess -526 -225 2 eneeeees 462
Telestaphic meteorology. <2. 2 occ alone wine sae a= ea scee Saeco nee R ee eee 56, 57
Pelesraph to connect Russia and the United States- ~.-- 2 252. - soe. sons eeeeaeeee 61
ida results ofbelayes}s Arctic observations=--- = sseceso- ss sete eee ee eee eeeeenes 31
Toronto University, letter from, with account of collections.......----.........-.--- 134
Gorey, Dro Jno. Plants:reterred to. -t--cos-eiecieces saeeeeenee sss eee ee 64
MotiensiGeneral Joseph Gy actsias Regent as = alse mele loe eesti eee eee 166
Eulogy on, by General Barmard: ~~ -o.c)cencscciseae p= eee 137
‘ransportation gaciities rendered. 2). -) <2 50 sonacemce eset aeeea eee eee eee 69
Tristram, Nir Collections {rom=t24-sos-cescee eee eee tere eee eae ee Eee eee 62
Treasurer of the United States. Bonds deposited with.---......--........-......- 21, 109
Treasury Department. Resolution of Regents applying to..----.-----.--.......-- 116, 117
Action of, relative to Smithsonian funds-.. oon ak nnn ne sane einen 21, 109, 118
Treasury, secretary of, letter to, relative to interest -....-2--. .2---- 222s -seseeeeees 117
romp wll eon. en acisras hep en beceaem ae eafa se ater se ester) seit 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121
iryon, Gs, W.,10n Melanide. cs cccmewiscists cast pene ceccitels es Sasee Lene Cee eee 40
Turner.Miss"Jane: | Duties Obs. cto -- sao occ e se ncece oace teen Sn eee eee 73
Ventilation of United States Capitol. Researches on_......-.-..----.---------<c 67
Vanton, Hrancis, account of, relative to) Waynnvestates-e- --- see eeieee eee eeeeeeee 115
WVoneirantzius; Dr.) explorations byeecacneclm oe eelaa > ame ioelseae eee eee eee 62
Niallach, Richard, actsas Resent-.ccctecas soc seeese pecans eee eee 115, 116, 118, 119
Report of Building Committee... -)s.a5- + sem oe loans eee eee lil
Reportiot lH xecutivel@ ommitbee!-a--eeeecinel- ee eee eee eee eee 107
Walker, Sears C. Researches relative to planet Neptune.........--.-..----------. 24
Warren, G. K., Expedition by, report upon-.-..--. nad soon asgonosHSsoscodedés caosce 23
Warrington Museum. Smithsonian shells deposited in-..........-.---...-------- 64
Niciehtsiandemeasures. “Tables/of\ soos es ce sete lees eee lem Saat 462
Welsh language. Reports relative to Indians using -....-..-----..----.----++---- 126
Wesley, Wim. “Agent for exchanges at Londom-----.------ <= ~ s=mee ae oo eee 74, 76
ether! Dr.'GChas. M. “Researches by.2.. 2-2-2 eescesies -o see eem 6 524 -- eee . » OF
Laboratory in charge of (25.02. -+ 22-6 see eenoes age = 67,74
Whitney, Prof, W. DB: (General alphabet. <2 <2. <2 ose caesarean eee 46
Woods Dr. TeiC.,. onuMiyriapod ars cnc ceic see ee cioccemere ase ee ia siee ae 43
Woolsey, Dr. 7: D. actsias Regent. <2. oom ee cma eee a a am eee 119
Woolworth, S:\B.. dhetter from:....<..,.sceaiemeceleseeenl-ee cela aces eee Sees 125
IWiymmiestate-n Note mel ailivie LO ea. a om atelalaalel elejeeeletois alee ele ttal imine erate ee 115, 117
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